OurCoast.com :: Savannah City Guide

Courtesy of congregation members Margaret DeBolt and Milton Rahn

307 E. Harris St. 912-234-0980
jinglebellschurch.org

A brief history of the congregation

The story of our church in Savannah is a tale of two congregations, one of the 19th Century and the other nearly 100 years later. In our historic Troup Square, building these two have been joined and an important part of our history has been reclaimed.

The first record of a Unitarian Church in Savannah is 1831, when a group petitioned for a trust lot on Chippewa Square, adjoining what is now the Savannah Theater. The request was granted, but this lot was sold before being built upon. A small white Greek Revival structure was erected instead on the southwest corner of Bull and York Streets. This was occupied, with a membership of some 60 families, until 1848, when it was sold to the Second Baptist congregation.

Our present building was constructed in 1851, a gift from Moses Eastman, a silversmith from New Hampshire. Eastman died in 1850, but as the Daily Morning News of Savannah noted, "His munificent design was not frustrated by his death," as his widow arranged for its completion with the noted builder John Norris.

It was located on Oglethorpe Square, across from the Owens-Thomas House on Abercorn Street. One of its leading members was Dr. Richard Dennis Arnold, a physician and civic leader, for whom Richard Arnold School is named. This church was the first public building in Savannah to be lighted by gas and was described by the Savannah Daily Morning News in April, 1851, as a "little gem."

President Millard Fillmore, a Unitarian, attended an evening service at this church in 1854. But in spite of the earnest efforts of the minister and congregation, the church was the victim of the sectional disputes dividing the country and closed in 1859. Only two Unitarian churches remained in the South through the Civil War, one in Charleston, S.C., (established 1819) and one in New Orleans (established 1833).

The 1851 building was acquired by the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia to be St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, the first African-American parish of that faith in Georgia. It was moved on rollers to its present location, an incredible task for such a building. That congregation was located here until 1947. The four contiguous buildings, designed as residences, date from 1862 to 1870. Southern Baptist congregations worshiped here from 1947 until 1997. The first was a mission of Bull Street Baptist Church, which evolved as Taliaferro Baptist Church and relocated as an independent congregation. The Savannah Baptist Center was established here in 1958, and served the inner city for nearly 40 years.

The church in the past century

The present Unitarian Universalist Church of Savannah was formed as a fellowship in 1958, meeting at the YWCA on Oglethorpe Avenue. This was the era of the Civil Rights movement, a particularly challenging time, yet the fledgling congregation stood firmly for the principle of equal justice for all people.

In 1961, the congregation rented the 1821 Francis Stone House on the northeast corner of Columbia Square. Ten years later, they bought the historic 1818 Abraham Sheftall House across the square, where they were located until 1997.

From the early 1960's, the congregation had the dream of returning to the Troup Square church. However, the Savannah Baptist Center could not move until suitable quarters were found, and this was finally accomplished.

This property was acquired by us on March 3, 1997. Our first service back at our ancestral home was on Easter Sunday, March 30, 1997, with a jubilant march from our York Street home to the one on Troup Square. It was a day no one present will ever forget, giving promise of many days of fellowship and service to come.

The Jingle Bells' connection

The last Unitarian minister of this church before the Civil War was the Rev. John Pierpont Jr., (1819-1879) a native of Boston and son of the noted Abolitionist minister and social reformer the Rev. John Pierpont. John Jr.�s brother, James Lord Pierpont, (1822-1893) was the organist, and also gave organ and singing lessons at the church.

The famous winter song "One Horse Open Sleigh" was copyrighted in 1857 while James was living here, and re-titled two years later as "Jingle Bells, or The One Horse Open Sleigh." James was also the uncle of financier J. Pierpont Morgan.

When the war came, John Pierpont Jr. went home to Boston and James remained here. After the death of his first wife, Millicent Cowee of Troy, NY, he married Eliza Jane Purse, daughter of Thomas Purse, a Civil War mayor of Savannah. James also served with the First Georgia Cavalry (later part of the Fifth Georgia Cavalry) and wrote music for the Confederacy. He died in Winter Haven, Fla., and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery in Savannah.

A "Jingle Bells" marker honoring him was dedicated at this church in June of 1985, and the James Lord Pierpont Music Scholarship Fund was established at Armstrong Atlantic State University in 1997.