Built in 1875 at a cost of $100,000, Unity Church was designed by Gothic Revivalist John Ames Mitchell (1845-1918), nephew of donor, Oliver Ames (1807-1877). and donated to the Unitarian Society of North Easton in 1875. Historian and first Unity Church Minister, William Chaffin wrote, "the stone, a native seinite was quarried a few hundred feet south of the church, the rear walls, a hard dark trap rock taken from a dike near the quarry." Rarely mentioned in church descriptions is the extensive use of the quatrefoil which seems to be a prominent motif appearing in the steeple, the truss work, the doors and windows. It surmounts the steeple and is carved into the walls. It focuses a central window and adorns every pew.

The exterior with its tall, graceful spire presents a multitude of faces. From the south, the rose window and porte cochere lend an upward lift. The rather horizontal view from the back still leads the eye aloft to the multi shaped slate and the iron tracery atop the roof. A view from the north places one in a land of make believe with the pagoda like cupola balancing the mass of the sanctuary.

The neighboring parsonage. now officially "The Holly House" in honor of retired minister Holly Bell was designed by William Robert Ware and Henry Van Brunt in 1878 in a Gothic Revival Style with gingerbread like jig saw patterns. This spacious and comfortable home is now the church office and our religious education center.

William Ladd Chaffin (1837-1923) became the minister of the Unitarian Society of North Easton on January 1, 1868 and remained until his death in 1923. His 55 years of service to this church is longer than any minister in this denomination has served a single parish. He was a Victorian "Renaissance Man:" geologist, botanist, historian, biographer, author, genealogist, educator, and theologian. His 838 page 1886 History of Easton is remarkable. A memorial to Chaffin and his wife, Rebecca Huidekoper Chaffin is on the right side of the church next to the door leading to the former chapel, now the Chaffin Room in his honor. Rebecca (1840-1922) is recalled as a kindly, happy, busy nurturing woman.

Originally heavily stenciled, with colorful walls, the front of the original church focused on a quatrefoil window containing the white dove of peace. Above is a large cross with an angel at its base. Angels playing musical instruments project from the ends of the front beams. The 1875 E. and G. G. Hook and Hastings eighteen stop pipe organ dominated the right of the church with its brightly stenciled pipes in a black walnut case.

The church interior was redesigned in 1895 by Henry Vaughan and the ornate frieze or pulpit screen including twenty-two oaken seraphim (Angels who play music), a memorial to Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893) was carved by Johannes Kirchmayer (1860-1930), an artist employed by Irving and Casson and W.F. Ross. Born in Bavaria, and educated at the University of Munich, Kirchmayer was called "one of the most remarkable sculptors of wood..." in a 1930 Boston Globe article. His friend, architect Stanford White called him "a big, raw boned, heavily bearded Bavarian." Other works of Kirchmayer can be found in the Rogers Unitarian Church of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the Chapel at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH, All Saints Church in Ashmont, St. Patrick's Church in New York, and the Chapel of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

To the left of the pulpit is an arch designed by Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) holding a bust of Unity Church's donor, Oliver Ames (1807-1877). This bust was carved by Truman Howe Bartlett, a noted sculptor of Abraham Lincoln and instructor of modeling at MIT. Bartlett also did the bust of Oliver Ames (1779-1863) on Oliver Street and the bust in the Ames Free Library.

To the left of the bust is a memorial to Oliver Ames (1779-1863), founder of the North Easton shovel empire that financed the church and several other buildings in town.

Directly across the transept from Oliver's bust is the memorial to his wife, Sarah Lothrop Ames (1812-1890). This tablet is a copy of the memorial by Queen Victoria to her uncle, the King of Hanover in the chapel of St. George's Windsor, England. It was Sarah who endowed the music trust fund which presently finances all of the music at Unity Church. This fund has since been improved by Mary Ames Frothingham, Nancy Ames, Elise Ames Parker, William Parker, and David Ames.

The transept windows are both of John LaFarge (1835-1910). The west window, "Angel of Help", donated by Frederick Lothrop Ames (1835-1893) was installed in 1886 in memory of Helen Angier Ames (1836-1882) his only sister who had died suddenly at age 46. Helen had been a pioneer and staunch supporter in the move to build a library in North Easton. Painter, muralist, and stained glass artist LaFarge created a double design using a background of broken glass jewels fused together and bending light from a deep blue to a fiery yellowish white, he placed a jeweled sarcophagus rising to heaven amidst a team of angels. Below he centered an Angel of Help emptying her pitcher into vessels of "Need" and "Sorrow." This angel is central to the theology of this church in its efforts to reach out to all in need. Art historian Henri LaFarge in 1981 called this window, "my grandfather's masterpiece." as it exploits every technological means to artistic expression. This window was restored by Victor Rothman in memory of David Ames in the fall of 2001.

The east window (Wisdom Window), John LaFarge's largest, was commissioned by botanist Oakes Ames (1874-1950) and his cousin, the Broadway play producer, Winthrop Ames (1870-1934) in memory of their grandfather, Congressman Oakes Ames, and their fathers, Governor Oliver Ames and Oakes Angier Ames. Here LaFarge has enthroned the "Figure of Wisdom," a women who he based on a Madonna, making her human with her halo becoming the back of her chair. The verse from Proverbs 3:15-17 surrounds the window. "Wisdom is more precious than rubies and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand and in her left riches and honor. Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace." The elderly gentleman, an allegorical figure for "Length of days" is from a Donatello relief and the young warrior, an allegory of "riches and honor" is from a Mantegna painting. The underside of the warrior's tunic is exposed in a rich blue. "Only my grandfather would have thought of that," remarked Henri LaFarge as he photographed the window in 1981. This window was restored by Victor Rothman in 1998.

Memorials to two who died in World War I include that of George Shepard (1896-1918), for whom the local American Legion post was named, first Easton boy killed in the war and Oliver Ames (1895-1918) of the "Fighting 69th," who was killed by a sniper in France.

The memorial to the left of the church entrance is to Sarah Ames Witherell (1814-1886), sister of the donor of the church.

The Rose Window over the south door is by Charles Connick in 1925 in memory of Rebecca Caroline Blair Ames (1835-1893), wife of Frederick Lothrop Ames. This window is in the Renaissance style of stained glass with but a single layer that admits light as long as there is light in the sky.  The Divine Love of God is the theme of this singled layered bluish glass that is visible as long as light remains in the sky. The four arch angels of the Apocrypha are depicted at the base and Uriel is in the center with young Tobias and his fish.

 

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