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First Unitarian Church

Berkeley, US

First Unitarian Church

The First Unitarian Church in Berkeley, California is a former church building that was built in 1898. It was designed by Albert C. Schweinfurth, who made unconventional use of Shingle Style architecture, usually applied to homes, in designing a church. It was also highly unusual for a church buildi

ng in several other ways, including the use of industrial-style metal sash windows, sections of redwood tree trunks as pillars, the strong horizontal emphasis, and a semicircular apse with a conical roof. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the California State Historic Resources Survey, and is a City of Berkeley Landmark. It has also been known as University Dance Studio and Bancroft Dance Studio for its current use. Although originally outside the university grounds, it is now the second oldest building still standing on the Berkeley campus. At the time it was built, facing a block of Dana Street that no longer exists, it joined a cluster of Protestant churches that had been built since the 1870s with the encouragement of the university administration. The land was acquired by the university in 1960 through eminent domain for the construction of a student...

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