Built in 1889 in the Richardsonian Romanesque. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
1976. A historic map-sheet match is not published yet. The record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
From the record
“First Unitarian Church is a historic congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Founded in the early nineteenth century, it survived a series of division and reunifications in the nineteenth century.”
Wikipedia article First Unitarian Church (Cincinnati, Ohio), CC BY-SA 4.0.
one of 314 National Register listings in Hamilton County · listed in 1976 · category: Building · built in 1889, Richardsonian Romanesque, by James W. McLaughlin · one of 9 National Historic Landmarks in Hamilton County.
National Register reference number.76001434- the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.
The reader looks forward to this, the first history of Cincinnati that has yet found itself in print. The writers look back across its half-century of chapters and the century of years embraced by its annals, and have, chiefest of all, to regret many unavoidable errors, both of omission and commission. The more important of these, it is hoped, will appear in our page of errata; but there are still many, doubtless, that have escaped the compilers' attention. In a few cases, discrepancies appear between their statements and those of an extract immediately following. In those instances they must assure the reader that the former rest upon an authority believed to be superior to the other in regard to the matter in hand; but time and space could not always be taken for the discussion and settlement of points concerning which there are variant reports. In all really important matters, they believe the history will be found quite trustworthy, especially when corrected from the page of errata.
Within the decade whose annals have just been passed in review, fell the birth of Cincinnati township, to which was entrusted, for almost twelve years, the government of Cincinnati village, which it of course contained. The township was created, after Columbia, by the court of general quarter sessions of the peace, which then had jurisdiction in these matters, in 1791. To the time of the erection of these townships, the whole county, which contained but a few hundred white inhabitants, was most conveniently governed as one municipality.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. Museums hold 6,429 specimens
collected within 10 miles of First Congregational-Unitarian Church between 1819 and
1975: 3,249 Fungi, 1,837 Animalia, 927 Plantae, 365 Protozoa, 32 Unrecorded, 18 Chromista, 1 Bacteria. 12 distinct Species records are shown.
Collected by A Schwartz, A. Braun, A. F. Braun and others. Each is a
physical object with a catalogue
number, and each entry opens the museum's record. This is what was
collected and kept, not a survey of what lives here - nothing can be
concluded from a species being absent.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists
4 workings within 5 miles of First Congregational-Unitarian Church: 2 unknowns, 1 past producer, 1 producer.
1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Tin, Lead, Antimony, Zirconium. Distance is straight-line from the
map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring
settlement's page as well.
Regional context, not property-specific
evidence. The National Weather Service names
Cincinnati, the town this property stands in, in 70 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 25 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 14 flash flood, 7 flood.
The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office
filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date
opens the federal record of that event.
Numerous roads were flooded throughout the Cincinnati area and some basements were flooded. Flooding also caused some damage at Reading High School and Whitaker Elementary School.
Lightning struck a home causing a fire in the attic, which spread toward the second floor before being extinguished. Significant fire and water damage occurred to the home.
High water was reported on several roads in the downtown Cincinnati area and the near West Side. A retaining wall collapsed onto a roadway near the intersection of State Avenue and Ernst Street and a building was flooded on Poplar Street. Also, an apartment basement flooded on Linn Street and one resident needed to be rescued.
14 papers published in this town,
digitised by the Library of Congress and free to read: 0 issues,
0 pages. Every page is searchable, so a name or a street can be
looked for directly in what the town printed about itself at the time.
No historic map-sheet match is published
for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs
a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary.
Browse the county's mapped places while that work is
pending.
From the nomination file
1,745 words on record
When this property was proposed for the
National Register, someone wrote the case for it: what the building is,
and why it matters. That document is a federal record in the public domain.
It is quoted below word for word, never summarised. The text was read off the scanned case file by machine, so the
occasional stray character is the recogniser's and the 1970s
typewriter's.
Description of the property
by Henry Fry and Frederick F.Eckstein, important local sculptors. CONDITION UNEXPOSED DATE UNALTERED DESCRIPTION MOVED XALTERED FAIR XXEXCELLENT surrounded by large stone voussoirs which creat a large rounded arch. sets of paired rectangular windows, capped with semi-circular windows on the facade.A small rectangular wing at the rear of the building A tall chimney is placed in the corner created by the intersection The roof is of a steep pitch and the gables, trimmed with stone, extend and a brick wing also at the rear, were added at a later date. The First Unitarian Church is a small building constructedof random The door is surrounded by an arch of stone voussoirs.Stone steps lead -RUINS - GOOD double door with rounded arch set left of the center axis of the facade.
To the right of the entrance, in the window on the top. ashler with a high, coursed stone foundation. The plan consists of a rectangular building intersected by a wing placed right of center slightly above the ridge of the roof. The facade has a large wooden up to this entrance. Two rectangular stained glass windows are placed surrounded by stone arches. The north end of the church has a large columns. center of the slightly projecting wing is a large window composed of The four lower windows are sparated by stone The interior sanctuary remains unaltered and contains-wood carvings four rectangular windows on the bottom and a large semi-circular window was designed by Frederick Wilson, a craftsman for Tiffany.
aprominate stone lintel/sill.The upper window is divided into of the wing and main building. rose window dominated by the figure of Truth signed-by Tiffany.The The bottom windows are separated from the top window by AREAS OF
Statement of significance
direction of officers of the American Unitarian Association, which was The architect, James C. Mc Laughlin, incorporated many of the characterist- random ashler, the modular effect of the two bisecting structural elements, MAD 17 1976 1889 1500-1599 1600-1699 ECONOMICS INVENTION BUILDER/ARCHITECT 1400-1499 PERIOD REGISTER SIGNIFICANCE ARCHEOLOGY-HISTORIC NATIONAL ART AGRICULTURE SCIENCE THEATER POLITICS/GOVERNMENT X1800-1899 XRELIGION RECEIVED MILITARY LITERATURE ARCHEOLOGY-PREHISTORIC The corporate existence of the Unitarian Church of Cincinnati dates from _COMMUNICATIONS Their very existence was a result of the spiritual revolts taking long association in this area.
Cincinnati was one of the earliest locations of the First Congregational locations for the First Congregational Unitarian Church in this country. - EDUCATION of the Richardsonian style of architecture. EXPLORATION/SETTLEMENT, all indicate an adept interpretation of Richardson's style _CONSERVATION 1900- the long passage on Sundays.In 1888 funds were established to build The structure is an excellent example of Mc Laughlin's interpretation Unitarian Chureh. the new church in the suburban area of Cincinnati.
This building is the congregations oldest - ENGINEERING and in Milwaukee in 1842.Cincinnati was of the earliest _SCULPTURE - 1700-1799 - INDUSTRY _COMMERCE - MUSIC -LAW Pennsylvania, in 1825; in Cincinnati and Louisville in 1830; in Buffalo in the rounded arch windows with stone voussoirs, the extensive use of building was located at Fourth and Race Streets and is no longer standing. In 1867 a new church was erected at Plum and Eighth Streets. Beginning horsecars and only the most devoted church goers were willing to make 1830. This uprising spread from the east coast ics of the Richardsonian style of architecture into this small building: place in American Protestantism.
and involved the assertion of the right of new knowledge.Under the The land for the first church was bought from Isaac Condin in l829.
Quoted from the National Register nomination
for reference 76001434, 14 pages, held by the National Archives in Record
Group 79. See the
catalogue record.
Listed places nearby
6 within 8 miles
Other National Register properties close
enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both
positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties
to their map sheets.
Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Specimens. Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), https://www.gbif.org/. Only records licensed CC0 or CC BY are used. Records licensed CC BY-NC are excluded because this site carries advertising. Images are checked individually and any whose licence is non-commercial, no-derivatives or unreadable is refused.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.
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