St. Cloud Unitarian Universalist Fellowship History Page

History of the St. Cloud UU Fellowship

The old Unity Church in downtown St. Cloud.
Photo courtesy of Stearns County Historical Society

From the late 1800s until the 1930s a Unitarian church, the Unity Church, was a prominent religious congregation in St. Cloud. This church was located at the intersection of 4th Avenue South and Division Street (today the Wells Fargo Building parking lot). The economic depression of the 1930s apparently was one factor which brought about the disbanding of the church. Then no organized Unitarian group existed in St. Cloud for about 30 years.

In 1960 some Unitarian organizational meetings combined with programs featuring discussion sessions occurred in St. Cloud. In the spring of 1961 persons involved in those activities founded a Unitarian Fellowship in the city. First an adult group met in members' homes or rented meeting rooms. Soon some of the members with children came together to hold religious education sessions in their homes. By the mid-1960s the Fellowship rented two meeting rooms at a local union hall so that adult and children's activities could take place at the same time.

The former Fellowship building in the schoolhouse on Maine Prairie Road.
Drawing: Sandy Barnhouse

In 1967 the group purchased a closed public school so that they could hold services in their own building. This former school was located near the corner of Maine Prairie Road and Quarry Road in St. Cloud.

They outgrew that building by the late 1970s and constructed a new building next to the schoolhouse. The former fellowship building was then demolished. Two prominent features of this edifice are stained glass windows and paneling salvaged from the St. Cloud Unitarian church of the early 1900s. As with other Fellowships, the group had lay-led programming throughout much of its existence. However in the 1990s and to the present the Fellowship has had a part-time minister most years.

The current St. Cloud Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Building on Maine Prairie Road

Photo: Anne Desmond

The history of the Fellowship was written by Cal Gower.

Return to About Us page