MC 171
The first preaching in Manchester, New Hampshire of the doctrine belonging to the Unitarian faith was given in March 1841 by the Reverend S. Osgood, of Nashua, but it wasn’t until July 19, 1842 that an assembly met for the purpose of organizing a Unitarian church in the city. The first pastor, Rev. Oliver H. Wellington, was ordained on that same day.
The society’s first place of worship, after it left the city hall, was a small wooden chapel built in 1841 on the corner of Hanover and Chestnut Streets by the Second Methodist Episcopal society. In 1843, when the Methodists built their brick church on Elm Street, they leased this chapel to the Unitarians. Rev. Wellington first preached in it July 2, 1843. That same month, however, the society bought it and moved it to the corner of Merrimack and Pine Streets, the gift of the Amoskeag Company, and enlarged it.
In 1852 in his will the Hon. Richard H. Ayer left the society a house on the corner of Chestnut and Central Streets, which was used as a parsonage and sold in 1864. In 1859 the society exchanged its house for the one built by the First Freewill Baptist society on the corner of Chestnut and Merrimack Streets. This they sold in 1871 and in 1872 they dedicated a new house of worship on the corner of Beech and Concord Streets.