In the early 1860s, Portland, Oregon was a small frontier town of less than 10,000 inhabitants. At the time, several churches already served the community, all of them with a more conservative doctrine. For those reared in the liberal religious faith of the time, there were no established associations in Oregon. They were left to their own devices—usually holding their own worship services, or attending one of the established churches without pledging membership.

Prominent among the liberal religious believers of the time was Mary Frazar, who had arrived in Portland with her husband in 1853. From the first, she had longed for the founding of a church that would reflect her religious beliefs. Until that church could be established, the Frazar family held services in their home on the east side of the Willamette River. On Sundays, they invited neighbors and visitors to sing hymns, offer prayers, and read sermons from contemporary liberal Christian leaders.

In 1862, the Rev. Thomas Starr King of the San Francisco Unitarian church stopped in Portland during a preaching tour to give a Sunday service and three days of lectures. He was not here as a missionary; it was not considered time to establish a Unitarian church in the city. But in 1865, when one of the city’s ministers violently attacked the Unitarian faith in a series of sermons over several weeks, liberal believers felt it might be time to establish their own church.

In December of that year, Mary Frazar, Sarah Burrage, Nancy Goodnough, Anna Cooke, Lydia Wright, Mrs. M.A. Abbott and Rosa Burrel formed the Ladies’ Sewing Society. Describing themselves as pioneers of the liberal faith, they formally united to promote and advance their cause. They met weekly in their homes and earned money by taking in sewing. They arranged social occasions and festivals, becoming the center of organized life among the liberal religious community.

By the end of their second year, the Ladies Sewing Society had raised nearly $1,000. The trustees of the new First Unitarian Society voted to build the group’s first chapel at SW 7th and Yamhill. The new chapel cost $2,200 to build. Uncarpeted, its plain wooden benches seated about 200. In October 1867, the congregation was notified that Rev. Thomas Lamb Eliot, a young minister from St. Louis, had accepted the call to the Portland Society. On December 24, Rev. Eliot arrived. He preached his first sermon a week later at the dedication of the new church.

Rev. Eliot embraced the ideals of community outreach in his actions. He frequently held services at the County Farm (a mental asylum) and the county jail. To reach the city’s unchurched, Rev. Eliot preached at a downtown theatre to large crowds. His unorthodox teachings were, of course, viewed with some skepticism by the mainstream church leaders.

By the early 1870s, the congregation needed a larger facility. Funds were raised and the church was completed four years later in 1879. Constructed next to the original chapel, it was built for less than $20,000.

Starting in the mid-1870s, the church continued the charitable work begun by Rev. Eliot. Due to their efforts, public drinking fountains were erected and the sanitary conditions of the county jail were improved. In the last two decades of the century, church members purchased a library for the state penitentiary, initiated reforms at the County Farm, established a free kindergarten, and helped organize both the Boys and Girls Aid Society and the Oregon Humane Society.

The financial panic of 1893 struck hard in the spring and summer. The church suffered reduced income and the next several years witnessed unpaid pledges and recurring debt. By April 1901, it appeared that the church would have to shut its doors. But in a dramatic reversal, at the Annual Meeting in May of that year, the Board of Trustees voted to remain in operation and successfully regained stable operations. A quarter century later, the church sold its original property and moved to its present site at SW 12th Avenue and Salmon Street, where our Salmon Street Sanctuary now stands.  (In April 2007, the Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the Salmon Street Sanctuary to the Eliot Chapel, in honor of our first minister.)

Huge increases in membership during the early 1950s led to the 1954 campaign to build the Chapel House. Groundbreaking took place on February 7, 1955, by Anthony Voorhies, a great-great-grandson of Thomas Frazar, husband of Mary, the driving force behind the establishment of the church in 1866. The Chapel was built on land purchased and donated to the church several years before.

On July 29, 1965, an arson fire nearly destroyed the Eliot Chapel. Flames tore a gaping hole in the roof, the church organ was ruined beyond repair and ashen rubble covered the pews and sanctuary floor. Packed congregational meetings were held to discuss whether to restore the sanctuary or to sell the property and move to the suburbs. On November 23, in a historic and contentious meeting presided over by Board Moderator Florence Walls Lehman, the congregation voted 140 to 62 to remain downtown.

Beginning in the early 1970s, First Church pursued the goal of owning the remainder of the church block. In 1972, the church bought the frame house on SW 13th with money from a bequest, giving the church control of half of the block. In 1979, 75% of the congregation voted to approve the purchase of the Nazarene Church on the corner of SW 12th and Main, now the site of our Sanctuary. The property a block south of the church, currently referred to as the “13th Avenue properties,” joined the church’s holdings in 1987. In 1990, the congregation voted to purchase the office building on the corner of SW 13th and Main, the final piece of property it did not own in the block.

Since 1992, when Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell was called to the congregation, First Church has enjoyed many years of tremendous growth. As the decade passed the mid-point, the church block facilities strained to serve the needs of the growing congregation. In 1998, a Vision for the future of the church was presented to the congregation and was passed. This Vision includes the construction of a larger sanctuary (while keeping our historic Eliot Chapel), a new Religious Education/Community building, new offices, and more. In the year 2001, Phase I of the Vision was completed. Renovation and aesthetic improvements were made to both of the sanctuaries and Outside In moved into their new building on the “13th Avenue properties.”

By the year 2006, church membership had reached nearly 1,600 and continues to grow each year. The church continues its long-standing tradition of social justice work, and is in the process of constructing our new Religious Education/Community building (to be known as the Buchan Building), which will complete Phase II of our Vision.