First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley, now also known as Christian Science Society, Berkeley, is a
Christian Science church
The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in 1879 in Boston, Massachusetts, by Mary Baker Eddy, author of '' Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,'' and founder of Christian Science. The church was founded "to commemorate the word a ...
, located at 2619 Dwight Way at Bowditch Street across the street from
People's Park, in
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
, in
Alameda County, California
Alameda County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alam ...
.
The Christian Science Society, Berkeley continues to meet in their over-100-year-old church building.
History
The historic 1910 church was designed by renowned architect
Bernard Ralph Maybeck (1862–1957), in a primarily
American Craftsman style, with
Byzantine Revival
Neo-Byzantine architecture (also referred to as Byzantine Revival) was a revival movement, most frequently seen in religious, institutional and public buildings. It incorporates elements of the Byzantine style associated with Eastern and Ortho ...
,
Romanesque Revival
Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...
, and
Gothic Revival style elements. The church is widely considered one of Maybeck's
masterpieces.
[Maybeck and His Work](_blank)
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/ref>
The basic plan is that of a square or Greek cross
The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' (La ...
, with two pair of great crossed truss
A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure.
In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
es spanning the central space overhead. In 1929 a Sunday School addition was added to the Church.
Landmark
It was declared a National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...
in 1977, and is on the .[ and ]
In October 2005, the Friends of First Church Berkeley were awarded a prestigious federal Save America's Treasurers (SAT) Grant, for the roof replacement and seismic strengthening of the 1910 Church and much of the 1929 Sunday School addition.[Friends of First Church Berkeley: Preservation Grants]
/ref> The church received a Getty Architectural Conservation Implementation Grant in 2006, to enable the completion of the seismic strengthening of the Church and Sunday School addition.
/ref> In 2009 and 2010, the Friends of First Church Berkeley received University of California Berkeley Chancellor's Community Partnership Grants for restoring the garden setting of the church.
See also
*
*
*
References
External links
*
Friends of First Church Berkeley — Bernard Maybeck's architectural masterpiece
{{National Register of Historic Places in California
Churches in Alameda County, California
Buildings and structures in Berkeley, California
Christian Science churches in California
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Berkeley, California
National Historic Landmarks in the San Francisco Bay Area
1910 establishments in California
Churches completed in 1910
Bernard Maybeck buildings
American Craftsman architecture in California
Byzantine Revival architecture in California
Gothic Revival church buildings in California
Romanesque Revival church buildings in California