History of the Historic Unitarian Meeting House
Adapted from A Brief History of the Second Congregational Society Unitarian Universalist, Nantucket, Massachusetts, February 1998 written by Elizabeth Oldham with Ted Anderson.
Since its construction in 1809, the Historic Unitarian Meeting House on Orange Street (also known as – Second Congregational Meeting House, South Church Meeting House, and the Unitarian Church) has been a conspicuous feature of the Nantucket skyline and prominent in Nantucket's history. In the beginning of the 19th century, Nantucket was experiencing a population boom unparalleled until the recent decades. The Historic Unitarian Meeting House was built on the south side of Main Street, the direction in which the original settlement was expanding. Today it is is the oldest of the large church buildings still standing in the town.
The founders of the church were incorporated as the Proprietors of the Second Congregational Society by an act of the Massachusetts legislature. By law, it was an "established" congregational church in the Puritan tradition of New England Calvinism, "congregational" being a method of organizing a parish, not a doctrinal persuasion. Congregational societies were democratically governed as independent entities but, as in the democratic design of the nation in 1776, suffrage was not universal. Only the Proprietors made the decisions. There was a sharp distinction between "parish" and "proprietors".In 1810, the Proprietors called upon Seth Freeman Swift to be the first minister. Twenty-one years old and only a few months out of Harvard, Swift rose to the occasion by providing firm authority. He also initiated what were considered to be radical innovations: a lending library in 1815 and the Island's first Sunday school in 1818. Swift's commitment to the ideal of justice seems to have included justice for all races, a controversial notion in 1810. He appears to have been held in high esteem by the small free-black community. One of the first marriages Swift performed was that of Captain Absalom Boston, remembered as the commander of a whaling vessel, the Industry, which sailed with an all black crew in 1822.
Almost from the beginning, "Old South" was an integral part of community life, measured daily by the Town Clock, built by a member of the congregation in 1824. That instrument, which has been replaced three times, is owned and maintained by the Town of Nantucket, which pays an annual rent to the church for the space it occupies in the Tower. In a further manifestation of what may be the most durable collaboration of church and state anywhere, the hours measured out by the Town Clock are still rung on the famous Portuguese bell, cast in Lisbon in 1810 and purchased there in 1812 by a member of the parish. The bell was hidden until the War of 1812 ended and was hung in the tower in 1815.
Seth Swift left the church and the Island in 1833, and was succeeded by Henry Edes who, with two members of the congregation, was instrumental in the initiation of the public education system on Nantucket. Also under Edes's influence the congregation took the major step, in 1837, of adopting the Harvard Covenant and becoming Unitarian – congregational in organization but no longer Puritan and trinitarian. Edes and the impetus for change eventually foundered. The Proprietors still made all important financial decisions. The congregation, which had been only selectively democratic from the beginning, desired to participate in making decisions affecting their own lives. Edes supported them, but the Proprietors were loath to relinquish their authority. Relying on his personal popularity to win the day, Edes tried to coerce them by threatening to resign, but he had to recognize defeat. His efforts to fully democratize the congregation were realized in the year he left. The two years that followed would be the most turbulent in the history of the church.It would seem that the congregation tried to express a new image of itself in the very structure to the building. Major modifications had been made between 1827 and 1831 when Seth Swift was still minister: the Tower had to be rebuilt, having been weakened over the years by the movement of the great Portuguese bell striking the hours 156 times a day. In rebuilding the tower, accommodation for an organ was included, and in 1831 the magnificent Goodrich organ – now the oldest American-built organ intact in its original home – was installed. The Tower itself is unique, because it is simultaneously a watchtower, manned into the twentieth century until modern alarm systems came into use; an organ house; a belfry; a clock tower; and a navigational aide and landmark. Many a shipwreck and many a fire have been sighted there, and many a life saved because the alarm on the bell was heard and obeyed.
In 1842-44, modifications far more intricate than the construction of a new Tower gave the building the remarkable interior that we see today. To allow for construction of a basement, the floor of the main hall was raised about four feet, making it necessary to remove the side galleries, which were now too low. The whole interior was redesigned. What had been a long, rectangular, typical New England Meetinghouse space was transformed by the construction of a dome-like ceiling and curved wall creating a chancel. Removal of the side galleries permitted installation of the triple-hung windows with interior shutters. The spaces created called out for decoration, and an artist – Swiss-born, Italian-trained Carl Wendte – was engaged to create the trompe l'oeil interior that is now one of the show pieces of Nantucket's historic architectural heritage.
It was not until the early 1980's that structural weaknesses created by the 1842-44 modifications became too obvious to ignore, and the congregation mounted a four-year, $850,000 preservation project that, in the end, prevented the building's collapse. At the same time, the magnificent Wendte trompe l'oeil wall decorations, repainted at least three times over the intervening years, underwent a major restoration. The funds for this project, the largest restoration ever undertaken on Nantucket at that time, were subscribed by the Island's permanent and summer residents. This was the beginning of the South Church Preservation Fund. The mission of the South Church Preservation Fund is to protect and preserve the historic character of the "Old South" Meeting House.
Now, as the 200th anniversary of the building approaches, the South Church Preservation Fund is again launching a major restoration project. It should be noted, though, that since the 1980's, many supporting projects have been completed through grants and fundraising. Partial restoration of the massive triple-hung windows, many of which are original to their installation in 1846, has been accomplished. The clock, clock faces, bell suspension, and golden dome have been restored. Studies have been completed to determine the cause of the now severe deterioration of the trompe l'oeil painting that has occurred since their restoration 20 years ago. A comprehensive study of the restoration and preservation needs of the building and its interior and the Tower has been completed. South Church Preservation Fund is now embarking on the Bicentennial Campaign to execute a comprehensive plan that will insure the continued structural and artistic integrity of this historical church building.
