LANDMARKS COUNTY HISTORICAL SITES : Church Remains Spiritual Home

* History: In 1890, oilman Wallace L. Hardison and a number of local ranching families established the Universalist parish in Santa Paula, the second of its denomination in Southern California. Construction of the church building began in 1891 and was completed the following March. The name of the church was changed in the 1960s to the Universalist Unitarian Church after the two national sects merged.

* Location: 740 E. Main St., Santa Paula.

* Hours: Call the church for an appointment to view the interior.

Although built just a century ago, Santa Paula’s oldest standing church has a medieval look. Ivy-covered stone, heavy, wide arches and a steeple rising from the ground contribute to its ancient appearance.

The Universalist Unitarian Church, built of local brick and Sespe brownstone, was designed by W.T. Richardson and required a commitment by its congregation of $14,663.

According to church records, that included “Church, glass, sidewalks, seats, lights and carpet.”

Stained-glass windows were extra.

The 17 leaded windows, now appreciated mainly from the inside because they are covered by plastic to discourage vandals, cost $869.50 plus delivery.

Produced by the Chicago firm of McCully and Miles, they were sent by rail to San Francisco, then by ship to Ventura, and finally hauled to Santa Paula by horse-drawn wagon.

The church steeple stood empty until 1915, when funds were collected to install a copper bell with the inscription, “Ring out to the Glory of God and the Memory of the Founders of Universalism in Santa Paula, California.”

“I can remember as a little kid walking home from school and seeing the bell on the lawn of the church with the rigging that was going to be used to hoist it,” said Robert Hardison, great nephew of the church’s founder, Wallace L. Hardison.

Hardison has attended the church regularly since 1912. At that time, he said, there were still a few teams of horses at the hitching racks behind the church during services.

The church’s minister, Richard Weston-Jones, said about 25% of the members are descendants of the founding families.

At the beginning, the liberal sect caused a stir among residents of Santa Paula. Weston-Jones has preserved the minutes of a Presbyterian meeting in 1891 which records that, “Universalism is about the worst evil we have to contend with in the progress of religion.”

Church records show that about a quarter of the town’s 1,200 inhabitants turned out nightly to hear Univeralism’s evangelistic campaign in its founding year.