Property Record
504 GRANT ST
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | First Universalist Church |
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| Other Name: | Universalist Unitarian Church |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 16260 |
| Location (Address): | 504 GRANT ST |
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| County: | Marathon |
| City: | Wausau |
| Township/Village: | |
| Unincorporated Community: | |
| Town: | |
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| Year Built: | 1914 |
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| Additions: | 1928 |
| Survey Date: | 1978 |
| Historic Use: | church |
| Architectural Style: | English Revival Styles |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | ALEXANDER ESCHWEILER |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | First Universalist Church |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 5/1/1980 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: | Eschweiler Thematic Resources of Marathon County |
| Additional Information: | ALSO LOCATED IN THE ANDREW WARREN HISTORIC DISTRICT. Universalist ministers first began coming to Wausau to conduct services in the 1860s. Organization of the First Universalist Church in Wausau took place on November 20, 1870. The first church was dedicated December 1, 1872 on the northeast corner of Fifth and McClellan streets. This site was sold in 1881 to St. Stephen's Lutheran congregation. The second Universalist church was built across Fifth Street to the west of the first site and was dedicated January 9, 1887. This site was used by the Universalists unitl 1914 when it was sold to the Mount Sinai congregation, which later sold the property to Employer's Mutual Insurance (Wausau Insurance). Eschweiler laid out this church in an unusual U shape. Its western leg is a monumental three-story nave, clad in irregular, randomly-laid stone. The nave’s front-facing gable embraces a generous Tudor-arched window filled with tracery and stained glass. On the nave’s west side, running along Fifth Street, narrow Gothic windows alternate with stone buttresses. At the southeast corner, a blocky three-stage tower rises to a crenelated parapet and a conical spire. Inside the nave, great oak trusses spring from stone corbels to support a wood-paneled ceiling, and dark hand-carved oak graces the choir loft, pews, and altar. The other leg of the church’s U, a two-and-one-half-story front-gabled parish house, contrasts with the hulking stone nave. The residence is built of stone at ground level, but the overhanging second and attic stories feature false half-timbering filled with stucco. The wing linking the parish house to the nave continues the half-timbered theme in its narrow, steeply pitched gabled wall dormers. |
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| Bibliographic References: | ANDREW WARREN HISTORIC DISTRICT, FRIENDS OF WAUSAU HISTORIC LANDMARKS, 1995(?). Wausau Daily Herald 6/12/2002. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. City in the Pinery, A Guide to Wausau's Historic Architecture, The City of Wausau, 1983. Marathon County Historical Society & Wausau Historic Landmarks Commission, Walking Tour of Andrew Warren Historic District in the City of Wausau, February 2007. City in the Pinery, A Guide to Wausau's Architecture, The City of Wausau, 1984. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |