Our History

We are the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis. About 300 voting members and many friends attend our services and contribute to our programs. We are a Welcoming Congregation. Our Sunday school enrollment hovers around 180 children and youth. Our weekly newsletter goes out to about 500 addresses.

We began as a small discussion group in 1948-49. Some members of the group had come from Unitarian churches back east. When a Unitarian outreach minister from Boston with the unlikely name of Lon Ray Call was traveling through the west, he met with us to explain the procedure for forming a Unitarian fellowship. The idea appealed to us, and we decided to do as he suggested.

During those first years, we met in the Memorial Union at Oregon State University, then at Harding Elementary School. With considerable worry about financing, we decided to buy property and build our own building. To do this legally, we incorporated in 1954 as the Unitarian Fellowship of Corvallis.

When our members learned that surplus government buildings located at Camp Adair were for sale, we couldn't pass up the bargain, and bought two of them. Then, after considering several properties, we chose a two-and-one-fourth acre tract on Circle Boulevard. We cut our two buildings in half, moved them by truck, prepared concrete foundations, and reassembled the pieces on our land in 1958. Neither Circle Boulevard nor Firwood Drive was paved.

One building, arranged in T-formation, became the meeting hall. The other, arranged in L-formation, became the religious eexploration building. Architectural drawings, masonry, carpentry, and interior finishing were done by volunteer labor. Meeting hall benches were constructed of two-by-fours and covered with heavy paper. At first, we met in the front half of the building and rented he back to a member who used it as space to build boats.

Time passed. We grew. In 1987 we expanded our kitchen, added the Fellowship Hall (sanctuary), offices, bathrooms, and the foyer. Later we expanded and renovated the Religious Exploration building. Even today, the Adair buildings are serving us well. Our member Edith Yang, an architect, drew up the plans for the renovations. Other members landscaped our beautiful grounds.

Although the Unitarians and Universalists merged in 1961, we waited until the 1970s to add Universalist to our official title. We are an autonomous member congregation of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), based in Boston, Massachusetts. We are a member of the Pacific Northwest District (PNWD) of the UUA, based in Bellevue, Washington.

Throughout our more than 50-year history we have had three senior ministers, one associate minister, three interim ministers and, now, a fourth senior minister. We share our building with the community for meetings, concerts, and ceremonies.

At our Fellowship, we have a thriving Religious Exploration (RE) program. It benefits from UUA materials and the efforts of our two part-time RE Directors, plus the generous talents of dozens of parents and other Fellowship members.

We have numerous other educational and outreach activities, necessary committees, fundraising efforts, celebrations, a church choir, and more. And we have many wonderful members and friends.