Our History

Residents of the Glens Falls area interested in Unitarian Universalism began organizing in late 1959 and the early 1960's. A core group of about five families formed The Unitarian Fellowship of Glens Falls.

In the fall of 1963 at a meeting of the St. Lawrence Unitarian Universalist District, one of our members learned of a denominationally sponsored program designed to help small groups get on their feet. After communicating with the Boston headquarters of the Unitarian Universalist Association, we invited Munroe Husbands, continental fellowship director for the UUA, to come to Glens Falls in January of 1964, to give us pointers. Two of his recommendations were 1) to inaugurate regular publicity so that our presence might and 2) to rent or purchase a place of our own.

Shortly thereafter about a dozen members met to determine our course of action. We decided that we needed a constitution and bylaws, a board of trustees, incorporation, and a house. In 1964, Kenneth Abbott and Bernice Riggs, (also friends and members of the Wider Fellowship), aware of our need for a church building, approached us with an offer of a house at 43 Lincoln Avenue in Glens Falls.

With the help of one of our members, Dr. Maxwell Mintz, the Schenectady Unitarian Church and a local lawyer, H. Glenn Caffrey, our congregation was incorporated as The Unitarian Universalist Society of Glens Falls on June 21, 1964. So it was that, on October 4, 1964, not quite ten months after Mr. Husbands' visit, we celebrated the dedication, with the Rev. William Gold presiding, of our first Unitarian Universalist Society home, a home that we kept for 13 years.

In 1974 we began thinking of bigger quarters, since our congregation and Sunday School were growing rapidly. We also started thinking about a minister. We applied for the UUA Minister-on-Loan program and for six weeks in January and February, 1975, the Rev. John Corrado showed us a vision of what we might become. As we put some of his principles into practice, our numbers continued to increase to the point that we were outgrowing our premises

In the spring of 1977, Dr. Mintz learned that the family home of Mary (“Polly”) Hoopes Beeman at 153 Warren Street in Glens Falls was for sale. Because of their friendship, Mrs. Beeman gave the house to the Society as a gift.. We dedicated this, our second home, on October 16, 1977. Our friend, the Rev. John Corrado, by then minister of the First Unitarian Society of Albany, presided at the event.

Over the years we had discussed having a minister, but had trouble agreeing on what kind of minister we wanted and how we were going to cover costs. Finally, in late 1988, a committee explored the possibility of hiring our first minister and perhaps sharing the minister with another church nearby. At our May, 1990, Annual Meeting we voted to seek a quarter-time minister, and elected a Ministerial Search Committee. By the next spring they had selected a candidate. The Society members met Linda Hoddy, then a student at Harvard Divinity School, and voted in May of 1991 to call her as our first minister, serving in a quarter-time capacity. She served as our minister until she resigned in the spring of 1996, by which time her services had expanded to half-time.

In 1996, we appointed a new Ministerial Search Committee, who selected Rev. Robert Bowler, with the congregation’s approval, as our next minister. He served our congregation from 1997 to 1999. In the spring of 1999 the congregation voted to seek an interim minister for a year or two while we reviewed our needs for ministry and meeting space. After meeting Rev. Kaaren Anderson, the congregation voted to hire her as a part-time interim minister starting in November, 1999. She remained with us until June, 2001.

On December 8, 1999 there was a fire at Hoopes House. Rabbi Richard J. Sobel of Temple Beth El was scheduled to be our speaker on the following Sunday. He and his congregation invited us to hold our services at the Temple at 3 Marion Avenue, Glens Falls, for the remainder of the church year. A new Building Committee formed to find a permanent, and preferably larger, building for the congregation. We found our solution in The Dance Center at 21 Weeks Road in Queensbury. During the interval before we actually bought the Center (October, 2000, through June, 2001,) the congregation met at the Masonic Hall at 15 Burke Drive in Queensbury.

On February 28, 2001 we signed closing papers on the purchase of The Dance Center. Similar papers selling Hoopes House to The Hyde Collection were signed on March 8, 2001. After the building was renovated and an addition was built for the Religious Education program, we began holding our services here in October 2001.

During the final months of Rev. Kahn's interim ministry, our search committee, after a unanimous vote by the congregation, called Dr. Deane Perkins as our half-time minister. He joined us in August, 2002. Dr. Perkins, a professor of graduate studies at Union Institute and University in Montpelier, Vermont, was ordained in his home church in Montpelier on November 9, 2003, with many members of UUCGF in attendance. He was officially installed as minister at the Glens Falls Church on December 7, 2003. Deane and his wife, Sue Cobb, have readily endeared themselves to our congregation and after retiring from teaching, Deane is now serving as our full-time minister.

Originally compiled in April 2001, but revised and condensed in May 2004 by Elayne Leonelli from congregational file resources with many contributions from Margo Burrell and Dr. Maxwell Mintz.

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