History of First UU

The First Universalist Unitarian Church was founded in Wausau in 1870 as the “Universalist Society.” The first building, at the northeast corner of 5^th and McClellan, was sold to St. Stephen Lutheran Church. A second building was built on the opposite corner in 1886. That property was sold to the Mount Sinai Jewish congregation.

Our present building, built in 1915, is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its three wings were designed by architect Alexander Eschweiler to represent and to connect three different aspects of our lives – domestic, social, and worship. Today’s classroom & office wing was a parsonage until the 1950s and will be replaced by a new section to keep up with our needs.

In our one hundred thirty-seven years, we have been served by twenty-five ministers. Two of these, Brainard Gibbons and Carleton Fisher, later served as Presidents of the Universalist Church in America. Rev. Fisher presided over the historic meeting in 1957 when the Universalists and the American Unitarian Association agreed to merge into the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Somehow this historic view must encompass one hundred thirty-seven years of liberal faith and endurance...thirteen decades of a tolerant and hopeful look at an always perplexing, always changing world...years of dedication that have contributed something permanent and unique to our community. It is in the minds and the spirits of our members that we find our church. Our foundations are their faith in the power of human goodness. Our roof beams are their high and mighty efforts to “progressively establish,” through “good will and sacrificial spirit” a better world for humankind.