First Unitarian Church of Oakland

The cornerstone at the corner is carved TRUTH, 1890, and the congregation behind it began with a heresy trial. In 1869 Laurentine Hamilton, pastor of Oakland's First Presbyterian Church, was charged for preaching that the dead get a second chance at salvation. He lost his pulpit and his ordination, and most of his parish walked out with him. Their independent church turned Unitarian in the 1880s. Hamilton, the minister Mount Hamilton is named for, collapsed and died while preaching on Easter Sunday 1882, seven years before Walter Mathews drew this church.

What the plaque says

Truth 1890 First Unitarian Church of Oakland Designed in 1889 by Walter J. Mathews, this solid masonry Romanesque church departed radically from California's traditional Gothic wood frame construction. Noted for its world famous stained glass windows produced by Goodhue of Boston, and for arching redwood spans, the widest at that time west of the Rockies, the church remains a significant cultural and architectural landmark. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 896 Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, October 30, 1977.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Woods National Monument — 17 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Muir Beach Overlook — 17 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.

More markers nearby

• Pardee Home — steps away
• Site of College of California — 0.4 mi
• Paramount Theatre — 0.5 mi
• Coast Guard Lightship WLV 605 - Relief (decommissioned) — 0.8 mi