History
The first Unitarian Universalist Church in Lawrence , built on Ninth Street in 1859
The Church
Unitarianism in Lawrence , Kansas , is as old as the beginning of the town of Lawrence in 1855; settlers from Massachusetts established one of the first churches and erected the first church building in the new town. The church on Ninth Street was for years a sort of town gathering place, and its bell, which survived a sinking during its transportation from Massachusetts , tolled for years to inform the citizenry of good news and bad. This first building outlived its usefulness and was ultimately torn down, but the bell still survives in the lobby of Lawrence High School . A second building on 13th and Vermont served the congregation for decades until the war years brought an end to an aging congregation in 1945. This second church building was taken over first by the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, and then by St. John's Catholic Church, which razed it in order to a erect a parochial school in the site.
That the ninety-year tradition of organized Unitarianism in Lawrence should cease irrevocably was unacceptable to some officials at 25 Beacon Street . An attempt at revival in the early 1950s did not succeed, but the energy and determination of the late Munroe Husbands could not accept defeat. In 1957 Mr. Husbands set out upon another of his many travels to revive and to enrich Unitarianism. A member of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, Ambrose Saricks, on the faculty of the University of Kansas , was requested to set up a meeting of interested persons in Lawrence to consult with Mr. Husbands. By newspaper and telephone some thirty people were brought together at the Hotel Eldridge in November of 1957. That meeting marked the start of the present Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence. A steering committee chaired by Professor Saricks spread the word of the new beginning and arranged for further meetings. From the basement of the Medical Arts Building at Fourth and Maine Streets, the incipient Fellowship moved for Sunday evening meetings in a day care nursery building on Alabama Street
There in February, 1958, it received its official recognition in the form of a charter from Boston its first officers. The first great need thereafter was space to establish a Sunday school. The immediate answer was found on the campus of the University of Kansas where, for three years, adults and children came together on Sunday mornings, first at Meyers Hall (the old School of Religion) and the Kansas Union and then in Strong Hall, the central administrative and classroom building. During this time officers of the Fellowship sought more permanent quarters. The most attractive opportunity arose not in the city but four and a half miles south of its then boundaries. As a consequence of school consolidation, the old Pleasant Valley School House came on the market at an affordable price. The building was purchased but required much work to make it usable as a regular Fellowship Meeting House. As in other communities, the goal could be reached only through a drive to raise money and through the willingness of the membership to provide considerable physical labor as well as money. All efforts were successful, and in the fall of 1961, the Fellowship dedicated the refurbished school building and a new Sunday School building in a special ceremony which brought joy and satisfaction to many whose efforts had made possible this success. In 2001 the Fellowship, still in its updated Pleasant Valley setting, had another special celebration to mark its 40th year in its own building. In 2004 the Fellowship celebrated 150 years of (nearly) continuous presence in Lawrence with numerous sesquicentennial projects and festivities.