Image Gallery

Today’s Longyear Museum, located at the corner of Boylston Street and Dunster Road in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, formally opened to the public in November 2001. The new facility replaced the Museum’s longtime home in the 19th - century mansion of John and Mary Beecher Longyear, founders of this independent institution dedicated to preserving the history of Mary Baker Eddy. The Museum’s former home in the Longyear mansion and the Museum’s latest acquisition, Mrs. Eddy’s former home at 400 Beacon Street, are minutes away from the current address.

The Museum’s inner courtyard reflects the graciousness of Mrs. Longyear’s former home and echoes the beauty of the gardens and grounds Mrs. Eddy loved at her homes at Pleasant View and Chestnut Hill. Bordering this secluded patio, flowers and flowering trees surround a fountain in traditional style. On the ground floor of the wing on the left are permanent exhibits, with Museum offices on the second floor. The center section houses the Longyear Portrait Gallery, a library, a members’ room, and the Garden Room where guests and staff often enjoy lunch and informal meetings.

A curved flagstone path leads to an arcaded porch, welcoming visitors to Longyear. In the background of this view is the arched gate that once stood outside Mrs. Eddy’s Pleasant View home in Concord, New Hampshire. The Museum’s modern design by Stopfel Architects, Inc., features hardy materials like brick, granite, copper, and slate, and harmonizes in scale and style with this residential neighborhood.

The gateway on Pleasant Street in Concord, New Hampshire, opened onto a short walk up to the front door of Mrs. Eddy’s home, Pleasant View. In this 1903 photo, household workers Pamelia Leonard and Lida Fitzpatrick, out for a stroll on the foot path beside the road, pause to chat with supervisor Joseph Mann, on the other side of the iron fence.

The stately granite arch which welcomed visitors to Mrs. Eddy’s home now greets visitors to the museum. For many years it had remained as a landmark on the Pleasant View grounds in Concord, New Hampshire. When the Pleasant Street property was sold in 1975, the gate, fountain and summerhouse were given to Longyear by The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist. The gate was installed on the grounds of the Museum’s home at the Longyear estate until it was re-installed at Longyear’s new museum home in March 1999.

In 1925 Mary Beecher Longyear and her son Robert visited the site where Mrs. Eddy’s home had stood. Throughout the 1920s Mrs. Longyear was vigorously pursuing her purpose to preserve the history of Mrs. Eddy’s life and work. Although she did not personally acquire the gate, the Museum she had founded in 1923 continued to add to its collection over the years, including the gift of the gate in 1975.

The fountain that graced the front lawn at Pleasant View was restored and installed at the Museum in the fall of 2001. Made of iron and zinc, it required extensive conservation measures to reproduce its original bronzed patina. The Museum’s curators turned to archival sources to assure historical accuracy in refinishing the highly decorative metal sculpture. The fountain, like the gate, was a gift from The Mother Church in 1975.

Mrs. Eddy’s fountain at Pleasant View dated from the 1890s. From the windows surrounding her desk she could see birds splashing in the water. The iron/zinc surfaces presented maintenance problems. By 1899 Calvin Frye was already writing to Boston seeking advice on how to refinish the metal.

The summer house (or gazebo) is one of two that once stood on Mrs. Eddy’s grounds. This reminder of the pleasantness of Pleasant View is also an example of what may be learned through Longyear’s curatorial program of research and preservation. When the gazebo was restored by the Museum in 1999, paint scrapings were analyzed to determine the historically correct colors. Normal building practice and other evidence indicate the gazebo would have matched the color scheme of the main house. The layers of paint on the gazebo revealed that Mrs. Eddy’s home, when she moved there, was a darker color. Paint chip analysis tells us that later she had her home repainted a much lighter shade of muted green with polychrome trim – more in harmony with the landscape she loved.

The summer house, like other such things preserved by the Museum, provides evidence of Mrs. Eddy’s way of life. This summer house stood beside the front drive at Pleasant View. A smaller one stood on the back lawn not far from the house. This simple artifact can bring to mind vivid memories, such as one recalled by artist James Gilman. He tells of having some issue to discuss with Mrs. Eddy one day. Spying her walking with her parasol across the back lawn, Gilman followed. Finding her seated alone in the summer house, he drew up short, stopped by the sound of Mrs. Eddy’s voice quietly but expressively singing a hymn. Gilman waited in silence. When the hymn was finished he hesitated to break in on her tranquil moment. But turning with a smile, she held out her hand to him in the welcoming gesture he knew so well.

A brick walkway passes through the Pleasant View gate and winds past the summer house and fountain, all of which once stood on the grounds of Mrs. Eddy’s home in Concord. More than 4,000 bricks in the walkway are engraved with names of Museum members and supporters, Christian Science teachers, practitioners, and early workers.

This tapestry in stone is a walk through Christian Science history, recalling countless lives touched and healed through the discovery and teaching of Mary Baker Eddy. Visitors strolling on these “Living Stones” will discover names of Mrs. Eddy’s students and other pioneers in the Movement mingling with present-day Christian Science workers. New bricks, donated by friends of the Museum, are continually being added.