Church of the Saviour - First Unitarian Church Brooklyn

Dedicated in 1844, this church is home to Brooklyn's oldest Unitarian society, formed in 1833. The gothic revival-style structure was designed by architect Minard Lafever.

Brooklyn's First Unitarian Congregational Society started meeting in 1833, and its 1844 Church of the Saviour building is among the oldest of its kind in Brooklyn Heights. Its windows were installed by Louis C. Tiffany in the 1890s. On its website, the congregation describes itself  as a joyful, loving, religious community that inspires and empowers people to grow spiritually, care for one another, and work for the social justice and stewardship of the earth. 

Sitting almost directly across the street from Brooklyn Historical Society’s building on Pierrepont Street, the Church of the Saviour was completed in 1844 and is now the oldest church building in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood. The architect of the church, Minard Lafever, was later known for his pattern books on the Greek Revival style. Lafever was one of the hands behind the spread and influence of Gothic Revival architecture in America’s 1840’s-1850’s, particularly in New York and Brooklyn. The design of the Church of the Saviour is proof in itself of Lafever’s fine work in this style.

By the early 20th Century, the congregation had grown to a point where they could afford to further beautify the Church of the Saviour with the addition of stained glass windows designed by Tiffany studios with some of them designed by Louis C. Tiffany himself. Within the First Unitarian Congregational Society of Brooklyn records, the lists and ledgers of the owners and renters of these pews include the names of many prominent Brooklynites like Alfred T. White, the Low family, the Pierrepont family, and many others. The collection also contains orders of service and sermons delivered within the church and non-ecumenical work carried on by the congregational outside the walls of the Church of the Saviour.