History in Our Own Words
An Occasional History
On May 21, 1871, in response to an ad in the Rocky Mountain News, a group met in the District Court Room with the Rev. L. E. Beckwith, recently graduated from Harvard, to discuss Unitarianism. The group chose to become a church, and the First Unitarian Society of Denver was incorporated in the Territory of Colorado in that year. The Rev. Beckwith was asked to be their minister, and they met at the old Denver Theatre at the corner of Lawrence and G (now 16th) Streets. Later that year, they closed for the summer as did most Unitarian churches of the time.
When they got back together on October 1, 1871, they rented a school room from the Colorado Methodist Seminary (now the University of Denver), but after two Sundays, the school’s trustees, objecting to their theology, asked them to leave. So, until December 5th, they met in Pastor Beckwith’s parlor, on California between 17th and 18th Streets. Next, they met in the 3rd-story hall of Crow’s Block on Halladay St. (now Market). During the week, the House of Representatives of the Territorial Legislature met there; the floor was covered with sawdust, and legend has it there were various bullet holes in the walls.
Beckwith’s health failed and he left on May 26, 1872. A new minister, WGM Stone, arrived in early October, but there was no service to welcome him as there was no space available to them. The Presbyterian Church on 17th had been asked but would not consider renting to them. The place finally rented to them was the Baptist “dug-out” on the corner of Curtis and G Streets. This was the cellar of a new building, completely underground, which had no superstructure yet so it was roofed with “common rough boards.” The group decided that the underground space with mud floor and basically unroofed were not suitable for religious gatherings, and this time they chose to leave.
Next they met for a time on the ground floor of the law offices of Belden and Powers, members of the church, rent free. After April of 1873 until the church closed for summer vacation, they met once again in the Denver Theatre on Lawrence and G paying $30 a month.