First Unitarian Universalist Church
Established in 1833 by Rev. Dr. Theodore Clapp, a Congregationalist minister who served as pastor until 1856. The church became Unitarian in 1837.
The first church building, known as the Strangers' Church, could hold more than 2,000 worshippers and was the former First Presbyterian Church located on St. Charles Street near Gravier Street, erected in 1819 by William Brand, architect-builder.
After the first building burned in 1851, the Unitarians constructed an octagonal church designed by John Barnett, architect. This church was called the Church of the Messiah and was located on St. Charles Street near Julia Street.
In 1902 the congregation moved to Peters Avenue (renamed Jefferson Avenue in 1924) at South Rampart Street (renamed Danneel Street in 1910) and built a Gothic Revival church designed by Robert Spencer Soulé, architect. The congregation replaced the structure with a Modernist building by architect Albert C. Ledner in 1958.
In 1994 the congregation moved to this building, constructed as the First Evangelical and Reformed Church, designed by architect Carl L. Olschner, and originally dedicated in 1951.