BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and stately headquarters at the very top of Beacon Hill, right next door to the Statehouse.<\/p>\n
If anyone doubted the denomination\u2019s might, its next move made it clear: In 1927, strapped for space, the Unitarians finished building a new home next to the capitol on the other side, even persuading the legislature to change the street\u2019s numbering so they could take their address with them.<\/p>\n
But the Unitarian Universalist Association, as the denomination is now known, is selling its headquarters building, as well as two grand homes and an office building it owns in the same neighborhood. It is leaving for a section of South Boston the city has designated an \u201cinnovation district,\u201d home to up-and-coming technology and arts businesses.<\/p>\n
Sales bring in money<\/p>\n
The move \u2014 expected to bring tens of millions of dollars to the denomination \u2014 puts the Unitarians in increasingly familiar company. Multiple religious denominations are simultaneously downsizing and raising money by selling longtime headquarters in expensive neighborhoods. The moves come at a time when increasing secularization is taking a toll on many religious institutions, although most say the reasons for their relocations are not solely financial\u2026.<\/p>\n
Catholic dioceses have been systematically unloading real estate for years, in part because of the financial toll of the clergy sexual abuse crisis. In Boston, the Catholic archdiocese sold its leafy campus, with a three-story home for the archbishop, a tomb for one of his predecessors and a chancery for the staff, in 2004; the church moved its headquarters to a suburban office park near a highway interchange. In the years since, other dioceses have sold or said they intended to sell their chanceries. In most cases the reason was financial, but in some cases it was diocesan growth or a need for office modernization\u2026.<\/p>\n
Some denominations are trying to keep their headquarters in place by finding ways to generate revenue from under\u00adused space. The Episcopal Church, based in Manhattan, rents out excess space in its headquarters building.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and stately headquarters at the very top of Beacon Hill, right next door to the Statehouse. If anyone doubted the denomination\u2019s might, its next move made it clear: In 1927, strapped for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,484],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-church"],"yoast_head":"\n
Historic Church Institutions Selling Property<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-12T15:32:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-16T20:11:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/\",\"name\":\"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-03-12T15:32:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-03-16T20:11:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property","description":"Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property","og_description":"Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2014-03-12T15:32:47+00:00","article_modified_time":"2014-03-16T20:11:13+00:00","author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/","name":"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-03-12T15:32:47+00:00","dateModified":"2014-03-16T20:11:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Source BOSTON\u00a0\u2013 The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2014\/03\/12\/historic-church-institutions-selling-property\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Historic Church Institutions Selling Property"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48193\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}