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.”
What happened in this room?
History was made in this room! The center of Mary Baker Eddy’s daily activities from 1908 to 1910, it was here in her study that she directed the activities of her Church, met with its Board and other officials, received visitors and the press, and founded The Christian Science Monitor. Here, she made hundreds of final revisions to her writings, authorized the first translation of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures into another language, and wrote final By-laws for the Manual of The Mother Church, cementing in place the structure that would carry her Church forward in the years to come. This room was also where she produced a stream of letters, articles, and messages to her followers and the world and daily mentored her household staff. A bright and cheerfully elegant space, the room is at once practical and personal, providing ample workspace in the light-filled bay of windows while reflecting Mrs. Eddy’s love of beauty and order and offering an inviting spot to read, rest, and pray. The furniture in this room is all original to the house, as are many of the decorative items, which include gifts from grateful students and friends.
Yankee thrift: Mrs. Eddy selected the wallpaper for this room herself, after rejecting the pattern that had been installed prior to her arrival (which visitors can see next door in Calvin Frye’s study). “A man who was building a house had ordered paper with a hand-tinted border of wisteria at the top,” Adelaide Still recalls. “He was unable to finish his house, and the paper was for sale; a sample was shown to Mrs. Eddy and she took it.”1 Originally hung when she had her suite made smaller—in keeping with the modest rooms at Pleasant View she was accustomed to—that wallpaper was reproduced during a renovation in the 1980s by The Mother Church. Officials ordered a large enough run to paper the room twice. The extra was given to Longyear, but the question was, had it held up well enough to be used after 40 years in storage? Fortunately, the answer was yes!”
Next stop: THE PINK ROOM
(Link goes live in January 2025.)
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 (November 2024)
Mrs. Eddy’s Study (This page)
Still to come:
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