Original Union Meeting House now Unitarian Universalist Church

The present-day Unitarian Universalist Church in Caribou, located at the corner of Grove and South Main streets, was the first church building in Caribou and was known as the “Union Meeting House.” Before this building existed, church services were held in the barn belonging to the Ivory Hardison family, the first settlers in Township H, later, Lyndon, then Caribou. All families attended, regardless of their religious beliefs.     In 1867, the present building was built by Sylvester Washburn and G.F. Ellingwood, with the funds raised by selling the pews for approximately $70 each. This church, as was the custom at that time in country churches, had a raised platform at the back occupied by the choir. When the minister announced the hymns, the audience rose and faced the singers, turning again when the hymn was over.
The church was heated by having four-by-eight holes cut in the floor of each pew and covered with tin. This tin was held down by a piece of wood nailed across it so the occupants could regulate the heat by turning the tin around as much or as little as was necessary to let the heat come up. The furnace was a large box- stove located in a hole dug beneath the church, there being no real cellar.
For the next several years the walls of this Meeting House resounded to denunciations, argument, pleading and just plain talk according to the ideas of the minister who happened to take his turn in the pulpit. Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists and Universalists each took their turns. By 1885 the Baptists and Methodists had left for their own buildings and in 1894 the Universalists had obtained possession of the church and all that was inside.
In 1904 the church underwent some major renovations, with the installation of a pipe organ at the cost of $1,350 and the addition of six beautiful memorial stained glass windows, installed by relatives and dedicated to the following individuals: Maud S. Files, Ned Files, Albe Holmes, Lauriston R. King, Samuel W. Collins, David D. Collins, Spaulding and Hardison. A full basement was added to the church in 1912 and in 1931, a parish house was added onto the rear and the porch was rebuilt adding large white columns, giving the structure a touch of colonial style.
In 1960, the First Universalist Church of Caribou voted to join the merger of the Unitarian and Universalist Churches to become part of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Due to its independent stance, however, it was not until 1982 that the congregation voted to change its name to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Caribou.
The last half of the 20th century was most noteworthy for the 15-year tenure of the Rev. Earl McKinney in the 1970s-‘80s. Some of the great social upheavals in our culture created no small degree of strife for the UU Church in the 1990s.
The congregation members feel fortunate to have had the leadership of Re. Maury Landry for the past 10 years. His thought-provoking sermons have inspired young and old alike, as demonstrated by the church’s growth by nearly 25 percent in 2008.