by Douglas H. Parkhurst

Continued from October 2024…

We begin this month’s article with a look back to early 1957. The board of trustees of First Universalist Church (now Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury), at its February meeting, discussed the current arrangement and capacity of the church building’s Sunday school space. Two large, open rooms, one upstairs and one down, were available for Sunday morning religious education activities. About forty children were enrolled in the church’s RE program at the beginning of 1957 (by year’s end enrollments had increased to fifty-eight). The board voted to have moveable partitions constructed; these would make for easy separation of various age groups and/or classes. The board also addressed the possibility of creating classrooms in what was then the building’s large and mostly unfinished basement at 347 Main Street.

Fast forward to January 1958. A committee was formed, with Rev. Gaston Carrier’s continuing encouragement, to look into building religious education space in the church basement. This group included Paul Hull, Perry Brick, Bertram Stroock, Albert Ahlgrim, Frank Keaney, and Mary Carrier. Arthur Wilson represented the board of trustees. The committee went to work, including conducting interviews with three architect candidates. A Mr. Stahl was chosen. Bertram Stroock offered to donate the architect’s $400 fee. [See note below.]

Project requirements were determined, a survey of the basement was made, and preliminary plans were drawn. Ideas and feedback from interested parties were sought, for example, the church school teachers made suggestions regarding new classrooms. Bids for construction work came from the following: Dolan Construction Company, Inc. $19,583; American Electric Construction Co., Inc. $1,107; Joseph Mongillo for plumbing and heating $2,556; Federal Welding Service, Inc. $390. These bids made the estimated cost of the proposed new Sunday school space $23,636, equal to approximately $250,000 today.

This would be a significant commitment, financial and otherwise, for First Universalist Church, in a year when the annual budget was around $10,000, with regular pledge income expected to be a little over $9,000. Nevertheless, a special parish meeting gave its unanimous consent to proceed. Securities owned by the church might be used, in whole or in part, to finance construction or be pledged against an outside loan or loans. It was decided to mount a new one year pledge campaign specifically to raise money for the Sunday school project. The initial goal was $5,000 in donations. 

Herbert Becker was named chairman of this fundraiser, to be assisted by a pledge committee that included board chair Joseph Farris and ten other congregational leaders. Building out the new space began, with oversight and supervision of this work in the hands of Perry Brick and Arthur Scott. Final plans called for creating eight new classrooms, a kindergarten area, and a children’s chapel. The classrooms would be equipped with chairs, tables, and bookcases; the chapel with a large table placed in front, ten benches for children’s seating, and a small organ [see note below]. Immediate access to this church school area would be from an existing stairway inside the south side entrance of the church building and through an entrance/exit in the rear

Construction progressed through the summer and fall of 1958. In October, the board authorized a committee of three, Joseph Farris, Perry Brick, and Wallace Parkhurst, to make arrangements for a bank loan of up to $25,000, to be taken as needed, and backed by First Universalist’s investment portfolio.

In the meantime, the church’s religious education program continued to grow under the guidance of committee chair Francis Albert and director of religious education Mary Carrier. Enrollment had increased to sixty-five by March and seventy-two a month later, almost double what it had been a year before. During these years, First Universalist used learning and teaching materials developed through the vision of Unitarian and Universalist religious educators like Sophia Lyon Fahs and Angus MacLean. These resources (the books are now mostly out of print) introduced children to themes like the universal qualities of religious experience; religion and science; how religion is relevant in today’s world; and religious values in home and community [see note below]. At least four additional teachers were needed on Sunday mornings and the lack of classroom space, pending completion of construction, was acute.

The junior high youth group was learning about crafts and hobbies, including wood carving and leather tooling. The young people played baseball in April and a cake sale was planned for May. Later in the year the group studied French and “learned semaphores.” The senior high youth group was responsible for First Universalist’s morning service on Youth Sunday, March 11, and also that month took part in a program “Many Paths to the One God.” In April, the teenagers visited the Vedanta Society in New York. That spring, the senior high group voted to join Liberal Religious Youth (LRY), the combined continental youth group of the still separate Universalist and Unitarian denominations. A meeting with their counterparts from the Bethel Congregational Church and the United Jewish Center was planned, with refreshments and a record hop to follow. A conversation with Mormon elders, a party at the Carrier home, bowling with teens from the Westport Unitarian church, and painting the new Sunday school rooms were activities for the coming months.

Construction of First Universalist’s new church school was mostly complete by late fall. Children and teachers used the space for the first time on Sunday, December 1, 1958. A formal dedication ceremony and public open house took place on March 8, 1959, following the regular 11 am service and a ham and turkey luncheon buffet prepared by the ladies of the church.

[Note – “Mr. Stahl” was likely Frederick A. Stahl, a young architect who had recently opened an office at 345 1/2 Main St., next door to the church. Frederick Stahl’s older brother, Dr. William M. Stahl, Jr., at that time conducted a surgical practice at 345 Main St. Frederick A. Stahl went on to become a prominent architect in Boston.]

[Note – The table from the children’s chapel has been stored in the basement of the house at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Danbury, along with the surviving benches that are now stacked and used as shelves in the “cage” area of the same basement. The small organ, long gone, was donated to the Sunday school by Melvin and Lee Green, proprietors of The Play Pen, a juvenile furniture and toy store in Danbury.]

[Note – This writer, then of elementary school age, recalls, for example, the Martin and Judy stories and such material as From Long Ago and Many Lands; Beginnings of Earth and Sky; and Jesus: The Carpenter’s Son.]

To be continued in December 2024…