Hudson’s Unitarian Church Marks 154 Years, Focuses on Racial Equality Work

The Unitarian Church of Hudson and Marlborough, founded by abolitionists, was built in 1861 and is the oldest church and the oldest structure still in use in Hudson. The building is still occupied 154 years later by people who value freedom, reason and tolerance.

The first preacher in the church was Reverend George Stacy, who had been removed from the Unitarian Church in Boylston for preaching against slavery. The parish’s current minister, Alice Anacheka-Nasemann, speaks warmly of the church’s history. “When I was a child, abolitionists were my heroes,” she said.

Most of the church’s history is well known and documented, but it is unclear whether enslaved people were sheltered there. Barbara Nahoumi, a member of the Hudson Historical Society, said, “because the church was standing during the Civil War, it was probably involved in the Underground Railway.” The founding members, the Union Society led by Charles Brigham, first met at Cox’s Tavern and then at the schoolhouse on School Street.

On June 19, 1860, in the school’s Freedom Hall, a warrant issued by George Rawson, Justice of the Peace, was passed to buy land and build the church. The church cost $4,300 and the land $2,300, and a house on the lot was moved to 18 Church St. When the church was dedicated on Nov. 19, 1861, it was called the Lawrence Church, at the request of Stephen Rice, who donated its clock, in honor of his friend Amos Lawrence, a philanthropist from Newton. Starting in 1862, town business was conducted in the church’s Union Hall, where residents voted to form the town and build a town hall, according to David Bonazzoli, a historian with the Hudson Historical Society. The town was founded on March 19, 1866, and the Hudson Town Hall was built in 1872.

Many notable people have spoken at the church, including Frederick Douglass, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter and Louisa May Alcott. Anacheka-Nasemann also recalled the story of suffragist F. Ellen Brown, for whom the church’s front Rose Window is dedicated. “Before woman had the right to vote, Brown went to her polling place in Hudson, and said that she was there to vote,” she said. “When told she was not listed, she said that there was clerical error. The workers at the pole said, ‘you are right,’ and let her vote.”

The congregation now has 47 members. Anacheka-Nasemann said that many years ago there was a large congregation, including families with 10 children. The church is supported through generous pledges from members, an endowment, and the rental of space.

Although small, the congregation is active and is currently focusing on Black Lives Matter. “We are looking at the intersection among poverty, race and incarceration, which adds up to an unfair system,” Anacheka-Nasemann said, adding a commitment to seek justice and mercy in public life (Micah 6:8). “We want to bear witness to this inequality.”

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