Our congregation began in 1838 as New York City’s fourth society devoted to the Universalist faith. Seven such churches would eventually be founded; today, we are the only historically Universalist congregation remaining in the city. (When the two denominations merged in 1961, we became part of the Unitarian Universalist Association.)

In 1848, we changed our name to the Church of the Divine Paternity, but in 1967 we officially returned to the name Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York. Over the years our congregation attracted notable personalities to our pews, such as P. T. Barnum, Horace Greeley, the Andrew Carnegie family, Lou Gehrig, Oscar Hammerstein II, Barbara Gittings, and Winifred Latimer Norman.  We have been fortunate to be served by many charismatic and pioneering ministers, including Thomas Lake Harris, Edwin Hubbell Chapin, Charles Henry Eaton, Frank Oliver Hall, Joseph Fort Newton, Charles Francis Potter, and Rosemary Bray McNatt.

Our congregation’s first home was near Manhattan’s southern tip; as the city expanded northward we too moved steadily uptown. In 1898 we built our current home, dubbed at the time “the Cathedral of Universalism,” at West 76th Street and Central Park West on New York City’s Upper West Side. The architect, William Appleton Potter, based the design closely upon The Great Tower and other buildings at Magdalen College of Oxford University. A revival of English Perpendicular Gothic style, it received praise from notable architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, whose daughter was married in the church. The sanctuary features several significant works of art, including an altar by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a bronze relief sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a mosaic by J&R Lamb Studios, and stained-glass windows by Clayton and Bell of London. The organ was donated by Louise Whitfield Carnegie, a longtime member who married steel magnate Andrew Carnegie. Originally designed and constructed by the Hutchings-Votey Organ Company of Boston, the instrument has been altered over the years.

In the 1980s, the congregation received inquiries from developers eager to obtain the church’s choice property location. Instead, the congregation joined with community activists, preservationists, and neighbors to form Save Our Universalist Landmark (SOUL) and successfully raised funds for maintenance and capital improvements. In return for these funds, the church promised not to exercise its development rights for a certain number of years, one of the first such agreements of its kind.

Fourth Universalist’s longstanding commitment to community service inspired our members, particularly a group of women called the TaKala Society, to found and run a settlement house, a free maternity clinic, and a nursing home from the late 1800s well into the twentieth century.  

In recent times, we have devoted energy and resources to social action, from participating in civil disobedience to demand Blackrock divest from fossil fuels to providing sanctuary for an undocumented immigrant family. Shortly after the congregation voted to assist a family fearing deportation, our building was vandalized by swastikas and hate speech, an incident that garnered national media attention.

The last five years, since the onset of the pandemic, have challenged Fourth U to adapt and innovate. We compensated for COVID isolation by creating online services, meetings, and events, which remain hybrid to help more people attend. 

In August of 2026, we started a new era at Fourth Universalist with Rev. Sara Green as our current Settled Minister. We are looking forward to many years under her leadership.