For the first time in four decades, a new year has dawned without a Unitarian Universalist Congregation on Locke Street.
The congregation has disbanded and the Andover Center for History and Culture is in the process of purchasing the congregation’s building just steps from Main Street and the center, according to Elaine Clements, the center’s executive director.
Built in 1883, the 6 Locke St. building, known as the November Club, was used by the congregation for decades, beginning in the 1980s. The congregation’s last service was held on June 9.
More on Andover News: History Center To Own, Renovate Historic Church
According to Molly Bicking, a congregant since 1990, the Andover congregation once had a thriving and close-knit community, with members attending a yearly summer retreat to Cape Cod. It hosted women’s spirituality programs and fundraisers with live music.
However, attendance has been depressed for several years.
“We love this place. It’s been very welcoming to us and wonderful and we love the people here,” said Karin Fuog, the congregation’s former president, who joined in 2017. “And from the day we walked in, we knew that it was a dying congregation.”
The Merrimack Valley gas explosion in September 2018 kept congregants at home because the building had lost heat. The pandemic also diminished the number of worshippers, including children and retirees.
When in-person services restarted after COVID, some congregants chose not to return in-person due to health reasons. This trend is not just present in Andover, but also across the country. One-in-five Americans said they attend religious services in-person less often than they did before the pandemic, according to a 2023 Pew Research study.
At its peak in 1995, the Unitarian Universalist congregation had 142 members and 82 friends, for a total of 224 congregants. As members, individuals are able to vote in meetings and help make decisions, while friends attend services but do not have voting power, according to Fuog.
By 2005, these numbers had decreased to 112 members and 55 friends. By 2024, it had 38 members.
The congregation formed a committee in June 2022 to determine its “future path,” said Fuog, who took on her role as president in June 2021.
“It seemed as if it was in the cards that we would not thrive the way we were going,” Bicking said.
They made the decision to close in February 2023, after a vote by the members of the congregation. Once it was decided that the congregation would close the Locke Street doors, members were divided into teams to address the issues of building disposition, historical legacy and continuing community engagement.
Fuog said that about half of the Andover congregation’s members have begun attending services at North Parish Church, at 190 Academy Road in North Andover. The remainder have fanned out to other Unitarian Universalist churches in the surrounding area.
North Parish, which has 295 parishioners, as well as 60 children, is housed in a historic building in the traditional New England Gothic style.
The church has introduced monthly Second Sunday Soup Lunches as a way to encourage community among new and old members of the church.
“We didn’t want for some silly reasons of omission…that someone might not feel recognized and not appreciated,” said Prudence Barker, a member of North Parish’s welcome committee.
The Andover Center for History and Culture will purchase the Locke Street building for $300,000 and begin a two-phase renovation, according to Clements, the center’s executive director.
The site, built in 1893, was owned and operated in Andover’s November Club, a historical women’s association, according to the center’s website. For nearly a century, the November Club hosted literary and social events, as well as acting as a hub for the Red Cross for World War I (see related story).
“People in the congregation just love this building,” said Bicking. “[We] voted that we would be willing to take a lower price on the sale of the building, in order to preserve the historic nature of [it].”