University Unitarian Church was built 1959 - 1960 by Paul Hayden Kirk. The building earned him the American Institute of Architects’ (Seattle) award.

“Where the community is enriched by its presence.”
– Rev. Aron Gilmartin

The cost of University Unitarian was projected to be $250,000, an enormous sum to the congregation that raised it. At the annual meeting in 1958, the Reverend Aron Gilmartin asked the congregation to envision the new church as something more than just a building. He cast its purpose for the UUC congregation and beyond: “It must be a place where people may gather for worship, where children may be taught to work and pray, and where the community is enriched by its presence.”

That “quarter of a million dollars” bought a church building, but its members made the church. Indeed, the electrical cabling was donated and installed by a member. Volunteers constructed shelving. The congregation gathered and cooked many meals in the most rudimentary of conditions. Dedication of the building took place on Sunday, April 12, 1959. By 1960, Rev. Gilmartin had left UUC for a pulpit in California.

In 1961, the Unitarians and Universalists formally merged. The building, new and modern, was the perfect setting for an evolving congregation and its changing faith tradition.

Image from University of Washington, Special Collections, DMA0542.