The Universalist religious movement spread across Ohio as the state was settled in the 1800s, proclaiming a loving God and universal salvation, though believers were sometimes scorned as “no-Hell-ers.” Olmsted’s First Universalist Society was founded in 1834, with early members including Olmsted pioneers Asher Coe, David Stearns, Charles Olmsted, Elias Frost, and their families, and services were first held in the Union House of Worship shared with Methodists and Presbyterians. In 1847, the Olmsted Universalist congregation built a Greek Revival style church at the corner of Butternut and Coe Ridge, now Lorain, Roads, with John Ames supervising construction at a cost of $974. The church bell still in use was cast in Boston in 1851 and sounded alarms for fires, tolled when community members died, and announced worship services. Universalists opposed slavery and promoted equality for all, and church legend asserts that slaves escaping to freedom on the Underground Railroad hid in the belfry. Abbie Danforth served as a minister here in 1879, and the congregation became the First Universalist Church in 1871. Stained glass windows were added during a renovation in 1881-1882. As North Olmsted grew and Lorain Road was widened, the congregation moved its sanctuary to this location in 1963 to protect the building from damage caused by heavy traffic. The church joined the Congregations after a national merger of the Unitarians and Universalists in 1961, was designated a North Olmsted Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and is the oldest surviving Universalist church in Ohio in continuous use.