Ella Bartlett, our first minister, graduated from Canton Theological School at St. Lawrence University in 1877 and was ordained September 4 1878. She was a missionary worker in southwestern New York, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri. Near the end of her life, she wrote that she was “just a commonplace nobody who has done what she could to promote the faith called Universalism and had so little success that it is not worth mentioning.”  Miss Bartlett gave a great deal to the small congregation. Her sermons and beautiful prayers reflected a rare spiritual quality. Her advanced age, however, restricted her activities. She remained a guest of the Cole family and received only the funds voted from time-to-time to cover necessities. She left St. Petersburg for Pensacola in 1916 and died on October 26 1931.

After the 1914-15 season, services were discontinued for the summer. That fall, the women of the church set up their first organization, “The Women’s Missionary Circle of the Universalist Church” and arrangements were made with the Universalist Convention to continue activities in St. Petersburg. The congregation agreed to assume the sum of $25 per month as our portion of the minister’s salary. Rev. Harriet Baker Robinson agreed to serve jointly with our Church and the Universalist Church of the Good Shepherd in Tarpon Springs. She lived in the parsonage in Tarpon Springs. She conducted morning services in Tarpon Springs then took the slow train to St. Petersburg for an evening service. Mrs. Robinson proved to be a good leader and during her ministry, attendance grew to 125 people. Continual progress was made in the 1916-1917 season, and the name of the society was changed to The First Universalist Church of St. Petersburg.

During the early days of the church, services were held in homes and the fellowship was very close. Others joined the small congregation, and the old G.A.R. Hall became the first meeting place. This location was followed by other rented meeting locations: the Woman’s Town Improvement Association Building (opposite Williams Park on First Avenue North – rental $2.50 per night); followed by the lodge room of the Masonic Temple (Fourth Street and First Avenue); and finally “The Auditorium” (Second Avenue South between Second and Third Streets). Sharing these quarters with other organizations meant sometimes listening to the German-American Society’s jolly times in an adjoining room during preaching; sometimes it was the chugs and whistles of trains punctuating the service. Much effort was required by these early Universalists to set up the service – lifting heavy benches into place and bringing boxes of hymn books from attic storage rooms.

Other ministers who occupied these meeting places through the first ten years of the church, shared a joint pastorate with the Universalist Church in Tarpon Springs: Rev. Harriet Baker Robinson was followed by Rev. Harry Holden, Rev. Stanard Dow Butler, D. D. (who later served as our first full-time settled minister) and Rev. Louis J. Richards. Under the constructive leadership of the Rev. Richards, two lots at the corner of Second Street N. and 10th Avenue North were purchased. These lots, originally intended as the church site, were later sold, the proceeds of which were used to offset costs of the current church.

During the early boom period of the 1920’s, the church and the city of St. Petersburg grew rapidly. It was time to build a permanent church home. The Rev. Dr. Stanard Dow Butler, who concurred with the church’s decision to form a stronger base for growth by uniting with the Unitarians, became our second full-time minister in 1925. There was conviction that all liberals must join together if success was to be achieved. National headquarters of both the Universalists and the Unitarians were discussing the local situation. 

At a momentous meeting in the spring of 1925, it was decided that the two liberal churches in St. Petersburg – the Universalists and Unitarians – should federate for the founding of a liberal church. So, thirty-six years before the official merger of the national Unitarian and Universalist denominations in May 1961, a Universalist-Unitarian merger was completed in St. Petersburg. Thus our church is important, not only for its own unique history, but also for contributing to the very early growth of the national Unitarian Universalist movement.

On Sunday, February 27 1927, a meeting was called at the close of the Sunday service for the purpose of officially changing the name of the Church to reflect the newly merged Universalist-Unitarian church. The congregation adopted the name The United Liberal Church (Universalist-Unitarian) by a majority of 26 votes in favor against 5 votes cast for other names. Incorporation papers were filed on March 29 1928. The full house in Central Avenue’s Pheil Theatre for Easter Sunday, prompted enthusiastic plans for building a new church home – our current church building facing Mirror Lake.

Thus, a new church was built to house the growing congregation.  Our Spanish Colonial Revival style structure on Mirror Lake at Arlington Avenue N – is true to the style both on the exterior and interior. The impetus to build a permanent church home started in November 1922 when the women voted to give $100 to the church building fund, to be used as a down payment for lots located on Second Street N. and 10th Avenue N. During the next several years, the minutes of the Ladies Aid Society reflect their herculean efforts to raise money for the Building Fund. Gifts were swelling our Building Fund and the dream of a church building seemed near realization. The cornerstone was laid by Mr. Harry C. Chubb, chairman of the building committee, at a simple ceremony in 1929.  

Following Rev. Gilmour, Rev. Ernest Turner Marble accepted the call to be our minister in September of 1948, ably assisted by his wife Elisabeth. Rev Marble served as our minister until 1961. He was a young man of 41, with a wife and three young children. Rev. Marble was a Tufts graduate from Stamford CT and a WW II veteran, who served as a navy chaplain. Both he and his wife Elizabeth were active in St. Petersburg in interfaith, interracial and civic projects. He was a founder of the Council on Human Relations, and served as vice president and a member of the organization’s board of directors. During Rev. Marble’s ministry, the church maintained a membership of about 200 with an annual budget in the mid-1950’s of about $10,000. It was during Rev. Marble’s ministry that the church purchased its first parsonage, installed a Conn electric organ (subsequently replaced by an Allen organ in 1967, then again in 1987) (3) and electric chimes, purchased a public address system, installed the ladies rest room on the first floor, and renovated and beautified the church and parish hall.

The church mortgage was burned on March 24, 1949 during Rev. Marble’s ministry.

At the annual meeting of 1957, Mrs. Donald E. Putnam, professionally known as Mrs. Lura Fullerton Putnam, retired as organist after thirty years of continuous service, beginning two years before the present church was built. In recognition of her steadfast services and the high quality of music rendered, she was voted the title of Organist Emeritus of the United Liberal Church at a dinner given in her honor.

In an interview in Church News on the 10th anniversary of Rev. Marble’s tenure, he stated “Our church is deeply conscious of the problems of all mankind and tries to find a common denominator for understanding among people of all walks of life and of all national and racial backgrounds.” After leaving the church, he became a social worker in Tampa. He passed away September 13, 1988 at Tampa General Hospital at the age of 81.

Upon Rev. Marble’s resignation, the Rev. John Ogden Fisher (Sept 22 1907 – Feb 22 2002) accepted the call to be our minister on September 1 1961. He served with great effectiveness setting up an Endowment Fund and was instrumental in the construction of a multipurpose activities and educational building which was originally named for him.  Major contributors included Mrs. Martha Conway, Marcus N. Wright, who was instrumental in launching building plans before his death, and Mrs. Nathalie Soehl. Classrooms on the second floor were named the Truethart, Reflor and Daisy Davis rooms, in recognition of their contributions.

In addition to his efforts in making major improvements to church facilities, Rev. Fisher, or “Jack” as he was commonly known, was quietly active in the nascent Civil Rights movement. In order to gain a larger forum for his concerns about the direction and health of the Unitarian Universalist Association, he ran twice for its presidency, in 1964 and 1968. In both elections, he managed to garner 25% of the vote without running a major campaign. It was his evaluation in 1960 that saved the Starr King School for the Ministry from closing. Rev. Fisher’s wife Dorothy Stallworth Fisher, a graduate of the New England School of Music, served ably as the organist and choir director during his ministry, and founded the church’s first professional auditioned choir. In 1968, Rev. Fisher resigned feeling his work here had been completed.