“The Dearest Spot on Earth”—An Introduction

In May 2024, Longyear Museum succesfully completed a thorough restoration of 400 Beacon Street, the final residence of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science. In this online series, we reprise “‘The Dearest Spot on Earth’” from the 2024 issues of the Longyear Review, taking readers on a tour through the interior of the immaculately restored house in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Each month, from October 2024 onward to June 2025, we will add a new room to the “itinerary.” 

The door opens.

You walk in—and find yourself swept back in time to 1908.

Welcome to 400 Beacon Street, Mary Baker Eddy’s final home in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. We’ve been expecting you!

There’s so much we want to show you, and we hope that many of you reading this article will be able to visit this magnificent house in person. We also know that for some of you, that may not be possible. So, we’re offering an armchair tour of some of the beautifully restored rooms where Mrs. Eddy and her staff once lived and worked.

The restoration project was massive—Longyear’s biggest undertaking to date. Inside and out, top to bottom, no corner went untouched. On our tour today, we’ll examine some of the interior details of that restoration, but we’ll also focus on the larger picture, on what made this house a home. Because, although 400 Beacon Street was unquestionably the executive headquarters of the Christian Science movement during the three momentous years Mary Baker Eddy lived here, it was also first and foremost a home.

“Home is the dearest spot on earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections,” she wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.¹  Her own experience here at 400 Beacon Street, along with that of her staff, certainly exemplified these words. At once the fond hub of their daily activity, this home was also the launchpad for tremendous good flowing out into the world.

“The unceasing prayer that the Christ may be born in every heart is going out from this place daily, and in that way the work is blessing all mankind,” wrote Minnie Scott, who cooked for Mrs. Eddy both at Pleasant View in New Hampshire and at Chestnut Hill.²

That unceasing prayer, as each household member listened for God’s direction while carrying out Mrs. Eddy’s instructions, was uppermost in thought day and night. But the important work accomplished here went on to the accompanying hum of everyday life. This was a home where delicious meals were served, music and laughter were heard, magazines and newspapers were read, and conversation flowed. It was a home for a “family,” as Mrs. Eddy called her household, drawn together by mutual gratitude for Christian Science and the blessings it had brought to their individual lives, and by their mutual love for its Discoverer, Founder, and Leader. In many regards a home like any other on earth, 400 Beacon Street was also a home like no other on earth, where Christian Science was put into daily practice under Mrs. Eddy’s loving instruction and mentorship.

And now, step this way and please follow us. We have so much to show you!

First stop: THE LIBRARY

Each “stop” in these freshly interpreted period rooms touches on fascinating details about historic restoration. And it also offers a window into the daily routines of “family” life and the prayer and practical accomplishments that took place during the three years that Mrs. Eddy and her staff lived and worked at 400 Beacon Street (1908­–1910).

“The Dearest Spot on Earth”: Part 1

Introduction (above)
The Library (October 2024)

Still to come:
The Dining Room
Mary Baker Eddy’s Study
The Pink Room
Calvin Frye’s Office

“The Dearest Spot on Earth”: Part 2

Introduction
The Kitchen
The West Room
Laura Sargent’s Room
The Sewing Room

This article was originally published in the Spring/Summer 2024 issue of the Longyear Review, a free publication for members. If you’d like to join and receive this print newsletter, please click here.