The Dining Room at 400 Beacon Street

Photos by Webb Chappell

By
  • Heather Vogel Frederick
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In May 2024, Longyear Museum successfully 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, starting October 2024, we’re adding a new room from Part 1 of the series to the “itinerary.” 

What happened in this room?

A lively, convivial space, the dining room was where members of Mrs. Eddy’s household gathered for meals—breakfast at 7 A.M., dinner (what lunch was called at the time) at noon, and supper at 6 P.M. A second seating was offered when needed. The table would have been formally set, in keeping with the era, and the meal served family style. Along with simple, hearty fare, conversation flowed—but not about Christian Science. “We were to live Christian Science, to be it, and not just talk the letter,” noted housekeeper Martha Wilcox. “This was the one place in the world where the chatter about Christian Science was not heard.”1

Clearly visible in historic photographs, the original light fixture over the dining room table had long since been replaced with a more modern one. An extensive search for a similar fixture proved fruitless, prompting this lovely reproduction.

Let there be light: A Longyear member’s generous gift funded a reproduction of the elegant fixture that originally hung over the dining table. Working from historic photographs, Grand Light in Seymour, Connecticut, recreated it. They also electrified the many long-decommissioned gas fixtures in the house and rewired the existing electric lights, refurbishing 175 light fixtures in total. “The house had always felt dark, since many rooms only had one or two electrified fixtures,” says Historic House Manager Rex Nelles, who oversaw the lighting project. “When all the fixtures were reinstalled and we actually got to see how bright and cheerful the rooms really were and how the lighting enhanced the objects, wallpaper, and art, it was special to me. I love turning on the lights in the house!”

Wallpaper sleuth: In just one example of a process that would be repeated in nearly all 28 rooms in the house, interior-design consultant Patricia Ford dove into the work of examining historic photographs and hunting down reproduction wallpaper. “The historical research part of it was so fascinating, so much fun,” she says. No original scraps were found in the dining room, but careful consideration of the photographs revealed what she felt was metallic ink on the pattern, a design element that would have beautifully reflected light from the gas wall sconces. When Patricia consulted the assistant curator at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, however, he told her that metallic ink wasn’t used during this time period. She continues, “I said, ‘Are you sure? Take a look at this photograph. What’s causing the light to bounce off it this way?’” A couple of days later, the assistant curator called her back. “He said, ‘OK, you piqued my curiosity, so I went over to Long Island into the archives and dug out [a similar] wallpaper and … it has metallic ink in it!’” Unlike many of the other wallpapers reproduced in the house, this pattern could not be machine printed, but instead required a silkscreening process to incorporate this lovely feature.

This handsome music box (left) was a gift to Mrs. Eddy from her student Laura Lathrop and Laura’s son John. Elegant crystal (right) is displayed atop a lace runner on the sideboard.

The brief stops in these freshly interpreted period rooms touch on fascinating details about historic restoration. And they also offer 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 here (1908­–1910).

“The Dearest Spot on Earth: Part 1”

Introduction
The Library (October 2024)
The Dining Room (this page)
Mary Baker Eddy’s Study (December 2024)
The Pink Room (January 2025)

Still to come:

Calvin Frye’s Office (February 2025)

“The Dearest Spot on Earth: Part 2”

Introduction (March 2025)
The Kitchen (March 2025)
The West Room (April 2025)
Laura Sargent’s Room (May 2025)
The Sewing Room (June 2025)

Notes


  1. Martha W. Wilcox, “A Worker in Mrs. Eddy’s Chestnut Hill Home,” We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition Vol. I (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 2011), 470.