The American Unitarian Association, peopled and powered by this city\u2019s Brahmin elite, announced its presence here in 1886 with a grand and stately headquarters at the very top of Beacon Hill, right next door to the Statehouse.<\/p>\n
If anyone doubted the denomination\u2019s might, its next move made it clear: In 1927, strapped for space, the Unitarians finished building a new home next to the capitol on the other side, even persuading the legislature to change the street\u2019s numbering so they could take their address with them.<\/p>\n
But the Unitarian Universalist Association, as the denomination is now known, is selling its headquarters building, as well as two grand homes and an office building it owns in the same neighborhood. It is leaving behind the red brick sidewalks, gas streetlamps and superrich neighbors for a section of South Boston the city has designated an \u201cinnovation district,\u201d\u009d home to up-and-coming technology and arts businesses.<\/p>\n
The move \u201d\u201d expected to bring tens of millions of dollars to the denomination \u201d\u201d puts the Unitarians in increasingly familiar company.<\/p>\n