before the Plaza bore his name, Alonzo Horton was one of San Diego’s early Unitarians. In addition to driving the waterfront growth of the newly incorporated city of San Diego, the visionary businessman sought out others who wanted to establish a center for religious education and Unitarian thought.

One of these was Judge Moses Luce, a Civil War hero, recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and founder of what is today San Diego’s oldest law firm: Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP. Along with several other prominent San Diegans, their efforts bore fruit when a small group (including 10 children) met for the first time as the Unitarian Sunday School on June 22, 1873. Alonzo Horton donated their meeting space: Horton Hall, San Diego’s first public theater, containing 400 seats. Within a year the growing school held its first public worship service, and in 1877 it formally organized as The Unitarian Society of San Diego, with Judge Luce serving as its first president.

So began the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego. It has now served our community as a beacon of liberal thought for 130 years. It has also “seeded,” in one way or another, the other five Unitarian Universalist congregations in San Diego County.

(The following timeline was taken from a magazine that was distributed during First Church’s 125th anniversary year: The Unitarian Universalist Congregations of San Diego County: Celebrating 125 Years of Religious Freedom, edited by Nancy Fisk, 1999.)