The Unitarian Church in Charleston, home to a Unitarian Universalist congregation, is an historic church located at 4 Archdale Street in Charleston, South Carolina. It is the oldest Unitarian church in the South and the second oldest church building on the peninsula of Charleston. The church has received Welcoming Congregation status from the Unitarian Universalist Association as well as Green Sanctuary certification. It is known in Charleston for its social justice activities. The Unitarian Church in Charleston was declared a National Historic Landmark. in 1976. The church is open to the public for tours at designated times and hosts public concerts, lectures, and programs related to contemporary social and political issues. Visit the church’s website for details. Early history and conversion to Unitarianism The Unitarian Church in Charleston was originally built as a second meeting house for the Independent Church in Charleston, also known as the Society of Dissenters, because the congregation needed more space than its Meeting Street location could provide. This second building was to be Georgian in style, plain brick with two doors and a tower in front. Construction began in 1772 and was nearly completed in 1776 when the Revolutionary War began. Because both Colonial and British forces quartered militia in the building, it needed considerable repair after the war. Unofficially named the Archdale Street Meeting House, it was finally dedicated in 1787. For 30 years following the dedication, the Meeting Street and Archdale Street churches operated as a single entity. They shared not only the same two ministers, but the same sermon was delivered each Sunday. Drs. Hollinshead and Keith, co-pastors of the church for most of this period, each preached one sermon in both houses each Sunday, alternating morning and afternoon services. In 1815, one of the co-pastors was the Reverend Anthony Forster. Forster was married to Altona Gales, the daughter of Joseph Gales, a North Carolina printer and a close associate of Joseph Priestley. Gales and Priestley were friends in England, and both fled England to escape religious persecution in 1795-1796. Dr. Joseph Priestley was the eminent British Scientist who discovered oxygen and carbonated water. Priestly was also a Unitarian Minister, and a dissenter. When Anthony Forster converted from the trinitarian to unitarian theology in 1817, the congregation split, with 75 members out of 144 leaving the mother church to form an independent church based in the Archdale Meeting House. (The original Independent