News

Longyear Awarded $395,000 for Lynn House Restoration

May 18, 2009

As a 2009 recipient of a Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund Grant, the house where Mary Glover completed her manuscript of Science and Health will receive funding to help with projects such as a new entry vestibule, accessible restrooms, and a complete exterior restoration.

Longyear Museum has been awarded a $395,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund to be applied exclusively toward restoration projects at the Museum's Mary Baker Eddy Historic House located in Lynn, Massachusetts.

The May 14 announcement of the fund's 2009 winning recipients was sent out in a statewide email by Anita Walker, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, informing 85 nonprofits and cultural facilities their requests had been approved and they would receive some part of $12.5 million. The Council received requests from over 130 organizations. The maximum award was $400,000.

"We are deeply grateful for this significant grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund," said Anne McCauley, Longyear's Executive Director. "The restoration of the Lynn house is a significant step for the preservation of Christian Science history - as well as for the city of Lynn to preserve an important building in American history and should be a source of community pride for Lynn."

The grant is to be used for restoration and accessibility improvements such as exterior trim repair, window relocation to their original positions, porch reconstruction, and construction of a new accessible entry vestibule and accessible restrooms.

The total cost for the Lynn house exterior restoration is $1.4 million. With this new grant money received, Longyear will have just over half the funds needed to complete the project and will continue to seek funds both from the public sector through grant applications, as well as from individual Longyear members and friends.

Built in 1871, the house located at 12 Broad Street in Lynn is rich in Christian Science history. It was purchased by Mary Glover (Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science) in 1875, as she was proofreading galley pages for Science and Health, the textbook of Christian Science Mind-healing. She would write an additional section for the book in a small attic room under a skylight in that house. Purchased by Longyear in 2006, the house is in the midst of a major exterior restoration.

The Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund was established through the 2006 Economic Stimulus Bill approved by the Massachusetts Legislature to invest in the Commonwealth's creative economy to enable nonprofit cultural organizations and communities to purchase, renovate or expand. All grants from the fund must be matched by cash contributions from the private or public sectors.