Image Gallery
Mary Baker Eddy's Household at Chestnut Hill, Part One
Mary Baker Eddy's Household Workersat Chestnut Hill
After the move to Chestnut Hill in January 1908, Mary Baker Eddy’s household sometimes numbered between seventeen and twenty-five workers. They included people like the fifteen shown in this composite image, made up of photographs that were taken, it is thought, in 1910 or 1911, after Mrs. Eddy’s passing in 1910.
From left: Jonathan Irving, houseman and watchman; Calvin Frye, long-time secretary and chief of staff; William Rathvon, secretary; John Salchow, groundskeeper; Ella Rathvon, assistant; Laura Sargent, companion/assistant; Elizabeth Kelly, dining room; Martha Wilcox, housekeeper; Katherine Retterer, housekeeper; Lula Phillips, kitchen worker; Nellie Eveleth, seamstress; Adelaide Still, Mrs. Eddy’s personal maid; Christine Bowman, housekeeper; Irving Tomlinson, secretary; Frank Bowman, coachman; Adam Dickey, secretary.
In addition to other duties, workers such as Frye, Dickey, Sargent, the Rathvons, and Tomlinson were assigned to pray during each day specifically in support of Mrs. Eddy and her work. All members of the household were expected to take a Christian, spiritually-minded approach to their jobs. Many left families and busy healing practices to serve together in assisting the Leader of Christian Science.
(Note about this composite image: Calvin Frye, Jonathan Irving, and Adam Dickey were not in the original photo. Frye and Irving were separately photographed, standing together. The two men were cut out of that photo and pasted onto a print of the group photo. Adam Dickey, who had been named a Director of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy, was not with the others for the group photo. So sometime later his image was cut out of yet a third photograph and pasted onto this retouched print. Thus all the principal members of the Chestnut Hill household are represented in this composite.)
Household and Kitchen Workers “were not considered ‘servants.’”
According to household member Frances Thatcher, the workers who cleaned, cooked, served, stitched, and answered the front door “were not considered ‘servants’”; the role of everyone was to maintain a harmonious, orderly atmosphere in Mary Baker Eddy's home. Adelaide Still, Mrs. Eddy’s personal maid, recalled, “All of the household were devoted to her and to the Cause. This was true of the household helpers, as well as the ‘watchers’ [those assigned to ‘watch and pray’ in support of Mrs. Eddy and her work].”
Workers in Mrs. Eddy’s homes were carefully screened and selected, first by a committee in Boston, and then by Mrs. Eddy herself. For example, Elizabeth Kelly recalled that after she and her cousins Katherine and Kate Retterer were recommended to the committee, Thomas Hatten was sent from Boston to Ohio to interview them. Some time after his return to Boston, Katherine received a letter requesting that she and Elizabeth come to Boston immediately, where they learned they had been selected to join the household at Pleasant View. The house and kitchen workers dined together and had their own sitting room with a piano, magazines, and other materials for their moments of relaxation.
Pictured here on the back steps of the Chestnut Hill residence are, from left: Elizabeth Kelly, Frances Thatcher, Nellie Eveleth, Minnie Scott, Katherine Retterer, and Adelaide Still.
Mary Baker Eddy’s Study. Inset: Margaret Macdonald, Housekeeper.
When Mrs. Eddy first arrived at her new home in Chestnut Hill, she found her rooms uncomfortably large. One month later, her rooms were made smaller, more like the cozy study and bedroom she had left behind at Pleasant View. Over a period of three weeks, she stayed in temporary quarters on the third floor, while her second-floor study was reduced by about six feet, the windows were enlarged, and her bedroom was cut nearly in half. At last it was a place where she could feel at home. After dinner, Mrs. Eddy loved to sit quietly in the bay window of her study, or in the small room above the front entrance, gazing out at the lengthening shadows and the activity beyond her gates on Beacon Street. Once a week, during Mrs. Eddy's drive, Margaret Macdonald helped sweep and dust her study and other rooms. The housekeepers pressed tacks into the rugs to mark the exact positions of furniture they had moved for cleaning. Margaret had been called to Pleasant View in 1907, later moving with the household to Chestnut Hill. She also helped answer the front door and assisted in planning and preparing Mrs. Eddy’s meals.
Nellie Eveleth’s Sewing Room and Informal “Club Room”
This is the room where Mrs. Eddy stayed during the three weeks her suite was being remodeled. It had been assigned to Nellie Eveleth, who had been her seamstress and dressmaker in Concord. Mrs. Eddy liked the view from this room, commenting that Nellie had the best outlook in the house. Miss Eveleth had been a helpless invalid much of her life, until she reluctantly tried Christian Science treatment. After being fully healed, she devoted the rest of her life to serving Mrs. Eddy and her Cause. Nellie’s room was a kind of informal “club room” where the other helpers gathered, and where Adelaide Still often read aloud to her while she sewed — perhaps some new garment for Mrs. Eddy. On the wall Nellie posted a sign for the benefit of those who might be tempted to gossip there: “No Tattling Allowed in this Room.”
Members are invited to read a testimony by Nellie Eveleth in the Members' Vault
Adelaide Still, Mrs. Eddy’s Personal Maid
In the 1890s in Bristol, England, a very young Minnie Adelaide Still struggled through years of darkness — through grief, poverty, and unhappiness — to find God. Moving to London, she was introduced to Christian Science in 1900, and later received Christian Science class instruction. Her life improved, and in 1906 she was able to go to the United States. The next year, she was called to serve in the household at Pleasant View. Mrs. Eddy selected Adelaide Still to be her personal maid, saying that she had been praying to God to send her someone — and she believed He had. Because there was already at least one Minnie in the household, Miss Still was called by her middle name, “Adelaide.” After the move back to the Boston area, she gladly stayed on with Mrs. Eddy during the Chestnut Hill years.
In her room, above, Adelaide rose before dawn each morning, and at six o’clock brought Mrs. Eddy’s breakfast and a pitcher of hot water up from the kitchen. She laid out the clothes for the day, and dusted the study while Mrs. Eddy dressed. Mrs. Eddy did her own hair, except for the last touches, and manicured her nails with a small penknife she kept in her pocket. Adelaide buttoned Mrs. Eddy’s shoes and her high-necked collar and helped her with her jewelry. Then Mrs. Eddy was prepared to begin her day, seated in her large cushioned rocker beside her desk, reading the Scriptures and Science and Health, thinking and praying for a time, often calling selected workers in for instruction — all before taking up her work for the morning.
Orderliness, Neatness and Dispatch. Inset: Martha Wilcox, Housekeeper.
Adam Dickey observed that orderliness, neatness, and dispatch were among Mrs. Eddy’s leading characteristics, and that to her, rooms and decorative objects represented conditions of thought. He recalled, “It was a law with Mrs. Eddy that everything had its rightful place and must always be in that place.” Martha Wilcox and Katherine Retterer were among the housekeepers who accomplished those goals day in, day out.
In November 1910 Mrs. Eddy called Martha to her study. Martha later commented, “I wish you might have heard her expressions of gratitude for her home and her gratitude to those who were caring for her home ... and what it meant to her to have such a place in which to do her work and carry on the movement of Christian Science.” Martha also served, at times, in specific prayerful support of the work. At Mrs. Eddy’s suggestion Martha was admitted to the Normal class in December1910, and went on to serve as a Christian Science practitioner and teacher for the next thirty-six years.
Twenty for Dinner. Inset: Minnie Scott, Cook.
On this stove in the Chestnut Hill kitchen meals were prepared for the entire household and guests — sometimes totaling twenty-five people or more. Minnie Scott came to Pleasant View in the spring of 1906 and stayed on at Chestnut Hill until the summer of 1909. She was assisted in the kitchen by Margaret Macdonald, who stayed on until May 1910. Margaret’s young replacement, Lula Phillips, later recalled that, working there, she learned to meet a high standard of harmony and economy in every detail — to have everything needed always on hand, and not to waste a crumb or a grain. Minnie recalled that Mrs. Eddy had tastes in food that would have been very common in that day, including boiled salt mackerel, boiled tongue, and veal cutlets, and desserts such as tapioca pudding, berries, fruit, and ice cream. She liked to have a glass of lemonade after returning from her drive, which the kitchen staff always had ready for her. Most workers pitched in and took on more than one assigned task. For example, in addition to their other duties, Minnie and Margaret oversaw the box for outgoing mail, which was in the kitchen.
Dining Together at Noon, Sharp. Inset: Elizabeth Kelly, Server.
Seated around the dining table are (clockwise): Calvin Frye, in his customary place at the head of the table; Adam Dickey; his wife Lillian, who was visiting that day; Irving Tomlinson; William Rathvon; Laura Sargent (back to camera, talking to Rathvon); and Ella Rathvon.
Serving in the dining room was Elizabeth Kelly of Ohio. Elizabeth later attended Primary class and returned to her home town of Marion, Ohio, to enter the public practice of Christian Science healing there. She enjoyed her dining room work — especially the promptness with which everyone arrived for meals. No dinner bell was rung, everyone just appeared in the dining room at the appointed hour. Breakfast was served at seven each morning; dinner sharply at noon; supper at six.
Due to the size of the staff, there were two sittings at dinner and supper, the second coming twenty to thirty minutes after the first. According to several workers, everything at Chestnut Hill moved like clockwork, with “no confusion, no friction, no lost time.” Strict punctuality was valued by Mrs. Eddy. There were clocks in every room in the house, including three clocks in Mrs. Eddy’s study and two in her bedroom — one, an old-fashioned alarm clock.
