First Universalist Church Burial Ground
Also known as First Independent Church of Christ Burial Ground
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
About
-
Get directions Lombard Street, between 4th and 5th Streets
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19147 United StatesCoordinates: 39.94240, -75.14822 - This cemetery is marked as being historical or removed.
- No longer accepting burials
- Cemetery ID:
Members have Contributed
Advertisement
Photos
No additional photos.
Add PhotosThe Independent Church of Christ, commonly called Universalists Meeting, was organized ca. 1791 and incorporated in 1801. It was to this simple church that Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) came in 1796, when he was not permitted to preach when he was not permitted to preach the Unitarian creed elsewhere and a Unitarian Church in America had not yet been founded. In 1842 the title of the organization was changed to "The First Universalist Church."
Opened in 1793, the church itself probably differed little from the late colonial meeting houses erected for nonconforming congregations all across the city. A passageway led from Lombard Street to the graveyard in the rear. According to one of its pastors, "when the house was first occupied for worship, the walls were without plastering, and the only seats, plain benches. I was told that the first pulpit was a rough platform made by a mast-maker and a shoemaker."
In the mid-nineteenth century there were several building campaigns to embellish and expand the church, although the author of a newspaper account in 1872 remarked, "grandeur has not been attempted in [the church's] appearance, but it is a very neat and church-like building. With its heavy stone cross over the entrance door, it might reasonably be mistaken for a Catholic Chapel."
In the 1880s the congregation built a new church at 17th and Master Streets, selling the old building in 1889 to Congregation Chevra B'nai Jacob, whose early membership consisted primarily of Russian Jews. As a precondition of the sale, the bodies in the churchyard were removed from the burial ground and reinterred at Fernwood Cemetery in Delaware County; the "heavy stone cross" was taken down and used to mark the new grave site.
Today, the congregation is the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration in Mount Airy.
The Independent Church of Christ, commonly called Universalists Meeting, was organized ca. 1791 and incorporated in 1801. It was to this simple church that Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) came in 1796, when he was not permitted to preach when he was not permitted to preach the Unitarian creed elsewhere and a Unitarian Church in America had not yet been founded. In 1842 the title of the organization was changed to "The First Universalist Church."
Opened in 1793, the church itself probably differed little from the late colonial meeting houses erected for nonconforming congregations all across the city. A passageway led from Lombard Street to the graveyard in the rear. According to one of its pastors, "when the house was first occupied for worship, the walls were without plastering, and the only seats, plain benches. I was told that the first pulpit was a rough platform made by a mast-maker and a shoemaker."
In the mid-nineteenth century there were several building campaigns to embellish and expand the church, although the author of a newspaper account in 1872 remarked, "grandeur has not been attempted in [the church's] appearance, but it is a very neat and church-like building. With its heavy stone cross over the entrance door, it might reasonably be mistaken for a Catholic Chapel."
In the 1880s the congregation built a new church at 17th and Master Streets, selling the old building in 1889 to Congregation Chevra B'nai Jacob, whose early membership consisted primarily of Russian Jews. As a precondition of the sale, the bodies in the churchyard were removed from the burial ground and reinterred at Fernwood Cemetery in Delaware County; the "heavy stone cross" was taken down and used to mark the new grave site.
Today, the congregation is the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration in Mount Airy.
Nearby cemeteries
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Total memorials1k+
- Percent photographed33%
- Percent with GPS4%
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Total memorials2k+
- Percent photographed55%
- Percent with GPS12%
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Total memorials0
- Percent photographed0%
- Percent with GPS0%
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA
- Total memorials29
- Percent photographed0%
- Percent with GPS0%
- Added: 18 Nov 2014
- Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2560304
Success
Uploading...
Waiting...
Failed
This photo was not uploaded because this cemetery already has 20 photos
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this cemetery
This photo was not uploaded because you have already uploaded 5 photos to this cemetery
Invalid File Type
Birth and death years unknown.
1 photo picked...
2 photos picked...
Uploading 1 Photo
Uploading 2 Photos
1 Photo Uploaded
2 Photos Uploaded
Size exceeded
Too many photos have been uploaded
"Unsupported file type"
• ##count## of 0 memorials with GPS displayed. Double click on map to view more.No cemeteries found