First Unitarian Church of Superior

Short-lived as a church, the old Onaway Club in Superior served Central Park for decades

By Shelley Nelson snelson@superiortelegram.com

Aformer community center in Central Park, the Onaway Club, didn’t start out that way.

The First Unitarian Church of Superior consisted of “forward-thinking intellectuals” who organized in 1890, according to the Wisconsin

Historical Society. The following year, they moved into the octagonal church with a 60-degree roof on East Fifth Street.

Col. Hiram Hayes, an early settler in Superior who held several positions in county government,

The old Onaway Club in Central Park got its start as the First Unitarian Church of Superior. (Courtesy of the Douglas County Historical Society collection) told church officials he would pay for the shingling, which accounted for shingles that originally clad the walls.

The small congregation’s stay in the church ended by 1895 because of the limited number of members and the loss of their clergyman.

The building became the African Methodist Episcopal Church, a congregation for black families throughout Superior, from 1899 to 1912. By then, the church had fallen into disrepair and with only two or three members of the original Unitarian church remaining in Superior, it was turned over to the Western Conference of the American Unitarian Association in 1912, with the condition it be used as a house of worship for 20 years, according to an agreement filed with the Douglas County register of deeds.

The promise wasn’t honored. The association sold the church for $400 to the Northern Improvement Company in 1914, which turned it over to the Onaway Club of Women of the Second Ward (Central Park).

The Onaway Club was used as a community center starting in 1914. To pay for upkeep, members held rummage sales, luncheons, style shows and rented the building for special occasions like weddings and anniversaries. The Onaway Cookbook, sold since 1961, helped pay for renovations in 1970, according to the Evening Telegram.

The club sold the building to a private party in 1979, and it has served as a home ever since. u