We, at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill, have completed our
"Building Our Dream" program in which we:
| Shortly after our organization was born as the Unitarian
Fellowship of Southern New Jersey in 1956, our founders acquired
the delightful, mostly-wooded 13 acres we now own on a hill in
central Cherry Hill, New Jersey. This property contained an historic
old house we renamed Unitarian House. In the early sixties we
built a large, "lamellar" domed structure which was
to serve as both our sanctuary and our social hall. We named
it Fellowship Hall. We also built a Lower RE building in
a campus-like layout. These, plus an existing barn converted
to office and RE space use, served us well for many years. |
Original "Fellowship Hall",
Christmas Eve 1990. |
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In the early 70s, the first of many Long Range Planning
Committees was formed to plan our growth. One outcome was a decision to plan for a congregation of 500 members maximum on the theory
that, beyond that size, we would prefer to spin off another fellowship and maintain our knowing-mostly-everybody intimacy. A less formal
but no less intensely felt objective was to, some day, have a
"Church on the top of the hill" - an objective we are
now finally achieving.
In September 1991, our growth forced
us into double sessions on Sunday primarily because of limited
RE classroom space. Concentrated, specific planning then
began. A Master Plan was approved in 1993 and a first capital
fund drive was kicked off in 1994 under the theme "Building
our Dream". A two-phase program was formulated with Phase
One being the complete renovation of Unitarian House and Phase
Two being the construction of a new worship space plus RE space
complex.
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Blueprints, plans, meetings, fund raising
etc. etc. etc
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| In 1996 we started Phase One. This resulted in
a totally reconstructed Unitarian House plus an addition to it
- the Betsy Nemser Wing. This combined structure now houses our
offices, the delightful Horsch Room and a comfortable caretaker's
apartment. In this and all the following phases of the total
project, a lot of "Sweat Equity" was invested by congregational
members to reduce costs. We dug, painted, pulled wires, cleared
land, ran back-hoes, cleaned up and performed myriad humble but
energetic tasks |
"Sweat Equity" in Unitarian
House Basement. |
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| Then, on 3 February 1997, after the completion of Phase
One and in the midst of our final planning for Phase Two of our
BOD Program, a fire destroyed Fellowship Hall just two weeks
before the rededication of the rebuilt Unitarian House. Since
we now had no worship space and no large social space, this forced
a major revision in our plans. Fortunately, the major features
of the existing, planned layout on our hill-top site could be
preserved by adding a Social Hall under the planned Sanctuary
space. This created a two-story structure. New, changed plans
were drawn. |
Original Fellowship Hall fire.
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Ground was broken on 13 July 1997 for the start of construction
of the new, combined 15,000 sq. ft. Sanctuary/Commons/Religious
Education structure. In October of 1998 construction of the new
building began in earnest.
Now we have moved into the Sanctuary in which we hold
our Sunday worship, our new RE class rooms, the Commons in which we have
our post-worship Sunday coffee hour and our second "Fellowship Hall.
The totally completed new complex was dedicated
on Sunday, 5 May 2002. Our "Building Our Dream" is no longer our
dream, it is our reality! |
Ground breaking, 13 July 1997.
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What you see now, finally, is our "Church on the top of the
hill" - long wished-for by some of our founding members. It is the
result of a $2.6 million dollar, two-phase effort, $1.2 million of which
has come from direct contributions of members and friends (Almost half!).
But, even more, it is the result of hours and hours (more accurately
years and years!) of planning, meetings, manual labor and, most of all,
love for this church. That we are proud of this accomplishment, there is
no doubt. But more than pride, we wish to feel the emotion of sharing the
Unitarian Universalist worshiping-together and living-together experience
with an ever larger group of like-minded people. We want to grow not primarily
to become larger but to be of greater service to the denomination, to the
community and, yes, to each other.
Come join us!
For our BOD photo album, click this icon... 
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Christmas Eve 2000, in our Sanctuary,
Back To History
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