Second Unitarian Church (Brooklyn)

[5] In the mid-nineteenth century, new religious congregations arose in the Cobble Hill area due to the proximity to South Ferry and Manhattan.

For several years, in order to hold service and Sunday School, the Second Society rented rooms in various locations throughout Brooklyn Heights.

In 1853, Samuel Longfellow became minister of the Second Church and the decision was made to build a permanent home for the congregation.

Because of Longfellow's strong abolitionist preaching, the Church was controversial and grew in debt as some members felt offended.

[10] His preaching strongly supported abolitionism and the science of the Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin’s discoveries.

During the American Civil War, the Second Church was involved in organizing donations to the Union front.

The Brooklyn Ethical Association held its first meetings in the Second Unitarian Church in 1880s, having Chadwick as one of its most valuable members.

[citation needed] Because the ground on which the church was built did not belong to the Unitarian Congregation, the building was “rootless”[9] in a sense.

In 1962, three years before the establishment of the Landmark Preservation Commission, the church was torn down and the ground was designated by a new developer to build a new supermarket for the neighborhood.

After a renovation in 1989 the little park featured geometrically patterned bluestone paving, trees, playground, benches, cast-iron fence, and granite entrance columns.

The building had seventeen arched, stained glass windows with the tracery made of Caen stone.

The main entrance to the church was located at Clinton Street, through a porch, above which there was a rose-window with stained glass framed with Caen stone.

Under the window was an inscription, "The truth shall make your free"–a famous quotation of the Church's beloved pastor, Longfellow.

The church held 104 pews made from black walnut and pine and upholstered with crimson damask, they were able to seat six hundred people.