In the early years of the church, a strong Women’s Alliance was responsible for fundraising and volunteer work. With their help, along with grants from the UUA, the congregation hired ministers and built their first church building. The women paid for a large assembly room with “a mile of pennies,” and earned money mending clothes for university students.

Ellsworth Storey was architect of the first building of UUC, built in 1915 at a cost of $5000. The chapel was in the English Gothic style and stood at the corner of NE 47th Street and 16th Avenue NE. Storey has come to be one of Seattle’s most beloved architects.

During these early years, the Reverend Dr. John C. Perkins constructed and installed a wayside pulpit where passersby could pause to ponder thoughts and quotations.

Dorothy Dyer was minister from 1927 to 1931, putting great emphasis on the work and energy of young adults. She was a pioneer for women in the clergy and an example of the leadership of women in the UU tradition. Rev. Dyer left the church when the Great Depression affected church resources, and there were no longer funds to pay her salary.

In The First 50 Years: A History of UUC, Ethelyn Miller Hartwich wrote of that era: “At this time, the problem for University Church became one of how to confine the financial depression to its economic sphere, without allowing it to disintegrate the group.” The church had a practical approach to these financial troubles. The next two ministers came out of retirement to work without pay for several years.

The early histories of the church are quaintly written – always pleasant and cheerful and often amusing. We read of Alexander Winston, who grew up in the church and became a minister, taking the UUC pulpit in 1936. He “liked the priestlier aspects of the ministry, and a communion set was given to the church at this time, a silver set which disappeared … but has been found again.”

Another time, we read of sweet cooperation among neighbors. In the early 1920s, University Presbyterian voluntarily bricked up a window near their organ because it was disturbing UUC services. Later, UUC offered the basement as rehearsal space for the Presbyterian choir – as long as they brought their own fuel and carried the ashes away. It was around this time, though, that a lovely lych-gate, or roofed gateway, was built to complement the English Gothic chapel. The neighbors sued, insisting unsuccessfully that the gateway was a “porch” and therefore too close to the sidewalk. It is this same gateway that inspired the name for UUC’s newsletter.

UUC called Josiah Bartlett to the pulpit in 1942. Bartlett was a dynamic man who gave inspiring sermons and actively supported social justice work. Under his leadership, the church grew to 300 families. He also started many other churches in the area. Rev. Bartlett coined the term “unitaria,” which “fascinated” everyone, according to Ethelyn Miller Hartwich. Rev. Bartlett then proceeded to write lyrics about unitaria to the boozy tune of Glenn Miller's Little Brown Jug.

Members in these early years volunteered in several war efforts for World War I and II. During the 1940s, a volunteer group called the Gargoyles, protectors of the church, became the Tangrams – a group that fitted itself to different needs of the church. Good thing both names were clever, because they changed the name back to Gargoyles again!

The 1940s are described as a “golden age” in the history of the church. The Great Depression was over. There was camaraderie as people worked together toward a common purpose. And the church community enjoyed dinners, dances, programs, bridge, and canasta.

Image from University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, A. Curtis 39786.