Unitarian Meeting House History(5)

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In April 1962, the Pearl Street property was sold to Congregation Ados Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in Hartford, for $85,000. The sales agreement stipulated that the Jewish congregation be allowed to remain in their synagogue until the Society was able to move to a new building. ^[1] The following year, in June 1963, the Society bought six acres of land for $50,000 from the Watkinson College Preparatory School on Bloomfield Avenue, ^[2] in a meadow that borders the Children's Village on Albany Avenue. The Society immediately vacated the Pearl Street Meeting House and temporarily moved to the Connecticut Council of Churches building on the campus of the Hartford Seminary, 60 Lorraine Street, while awaiting completion of its new Meeting House.

The building campaign, under the leadership of J. B. C. "Tommy" Thomas, was launched on April 21, 1961, with a goal of $40,000, which would bring available building funds to $400,000. That goal was reached within two weeks. Although the Rev. Payson Miller, who was about to complete a twenty-year pastorate in Hartford, had planned to retire in May 1961, he changed his mind a month before that date, apparently reinvigorated by the prospect of building a new Meeting House. The chairman of the Building Fund Committee, who effectively doubled as clerk of the works, was J. Garland Pass, Jr., of Avon.

In April 1961 the Society Council chose New York City architect Victor A[lfred] Lundy (b. 1923) to design the new Meeting House. Rev. Miller, who worked closely with Lundy on the preliminary design phase, reportedly told the architect that he envisioned "something that came up out of the ground" and symbolized the belief that all religions are but so many paths to a single, all-pervading Reality, a belief shared by Hindus and many Unitarians. Lundy clearly reflected this theological statement in his design, ensuring that none of the twelve concrete piers is identical in either height or form. Having previously worked with Unitarians in Westport, Lundy was familiar with their theological liberalism. "Unitarians believe there are many approaches to the Truth that unites them," he wrote. "I tried in this church for a symbolic and lyrical interpretation of the Unitarian Church." ^[3]

Lundy's outline specifications were completed in January 1962, and his formal plans for the new Meeting House were unveiled in June.

Twelve concrete walls radiating out from the central sanctuary and rising fin-like above the roof give a distinctive form to the polygonal building. The sanctuary, in the center, will receive daylight indirectly from a band of high windows just below the outer roof level. The wooden roof deck over the sanctuary...will be suspended by steel cables hung in a cobweb pattern from the radial walls.

In the February 1962 issue of Architectural Record, Lundy described the Hartford design:

The site lies on a gently sloping hillside overlooking Hartford, approached from on up the slope. It gives one the feeling of being able to see it from all directions and to see out from it in all directions. The concept is that many points of view draw together and become united in the center. One may start in one of many directions to reach the unity of the center; a unity of equality. The congregation specifically asked for a "closed" sanctuary; one that directs attention inward rather than outward.

From outside, there is a sense of being able to enter from any direction; which is so. The building rises towards the center, the high points forming a ring of reverse skylights which will throw colored light backwards upon the white walls of the sanctuary. A delicate ceiling tapestry of radiating thin wood members will further diffuse the light.

Two orders discipline the scheme: the order of plan, and the order of height. The sanctuary is at the center, ringed by a circular ambulatory--with three small interior courts at approximately the third points for visual relief. These separate the chapel (back of the altar), and define play spaces for children. Radial spaces contain Sunday School rooms, offices, toilets, etc. The lower floor centers on a central multipurpose room, ringed by ancillary spaces. The order of height simply allots scale and importance to specific spaces in relation to their functional significance, i.e., chapel highest, then lobby, library, children's rooms by age, etc.

The concrete radial walls start low on the periphery, grow out of the ground, and leap up to become cantilevers that support the sanctuary roof. A system of light beams 16 or 18 ft. apart will run concentrically and carry the 4 by 6 double tongue and groove wood decking. A thin `eyebrow' skylight will occur at every beam, worked in conjunction with the partitions below, and arranged so that extensions of the decking will hide the light source. ^[4] With the lights on at night, there should be an interesting effect created by the random bands of light--like stepping stones. To preserve the ceiling tracery effect, the sanctuary roof beams will be placed on top, with a radial lacework of thin wood members as ceiling. All roof surfaces will be covered with thin cedar members. ^[5]

Cable Supported Roof

Closeup (from below) of cable-supported roof.

Interior view of Payson Miller memorial Chapel.

The plans proved controversial, with many members favoring a more traditional design. A major objection was the cable-hung roof, whose boards were to be covered by tar paper, paint, and a spray-on ==>

Footnotes

[1]. Although Congregation Ados Israel no longer occupies the Pearl Street Meeting House, the building still stands.

[2]. This parcel once belonged to Anna Watkinson Wells, wife of James H. Wells, who negotiated with the Rev. Samuel Joseph May to bring Unitarianism to Hartford. On April 30, 1830, Wells, Hezekiah Huntington, Plowden Stevens, Jonathan Goodwin, C. M. Emerson, Henry Seymour, Joseph Sheldon, Edward Watkinson, and O. E. Williams formed the Hartford Unitarian Association. Throughout the 1830s the American Unitarian Association sent missionary preachers to Hartford but there was insufficient support to establish a church until the middle of the next decade. Finally, on July 27, 1844, Wells, Seth Saltmarsh, Charles Olmsted, Giles Olmsted, and Timothy M. Allyn signed the "Declaration of Faith" that established the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Hartford.

[3]. Profile.

[4]. The "eyebrow" skylights were dropped from the final plans.

[5]. "New Ideas of Victor A. Lundy," 119-120.

Let us know of any comments, errors and corrections - thanks (prepared 6/25/02)