Did Eddy ever visit The Mother Church Extension?

The Mary Baker Eddy Library received a research request from a California woman who works in a Christian Science Reading Room. While she was on duty one day, a visitor asked if something she had heard was true, concerning Mary Baker Eddy’s visit to the Extension of The Mother Church, which opened in Boston in 1906.   

According to what the visitor had been told, Eddy approached the Extension, then stopped, and ultimately did not enter. Was it indeed true that she never ended up setting foot in that church edifice? The Reading Room worker herself had always believed that Eddy did enter the building alone, sat for a while, spoke with a worker, and then left. But as she thought about it further, she was left wondering if both accounts were wrong. That was when she reached out to us for more information.

Replying to this inquiry, our research staff explained that both accounts were inaccurate. Despite living in close proximity from 1908 to 1910, Eddy in fact never entered The Mother Church Extension!

However, we do know that she saw the building from the outside at least twice. First on February 6, 1908, she drove by, just a few weeks after having moved from New Hampshire to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.¹

The second time, July 29, 1910, Eddy again rode to Boston in a carriage from her home in Chestnut Hill. This excursion first took her past her former home at 385 Commonwealth Avenue (where she had lived in the late 1880s), and then on to view the domed Extension from a vantage point in the nearby Fenway district. However, her secretary, Calvin Frye, noted in his diary that the experience was not a pleasant one. By the time she saw the church, Eddy had become exhausted from the rough carriage ride.²

Examining our records, we have not been able to find any information as to why Eddy never entered The Mother Church Extension. It has sometimes been asserted that she was not involved in, or even disapproved of, the Extension. This is not true. Eddy recommended the motion made by Edward A. Kimball at the June 18, 1902, Annual Meeting of The Mother Church that members would pledge up to $2,000,000 for construction of the building.³ She approved the architectural plans, selected the numerous quotations from the Bible and her writings for its interior walls, and was in communication with the Board of Directors during construction. And her address “Choose Ye”⁴ was delivered by First Reader William D. McCrackan at the dedication and communion services, held in the Extension on June 10, 1906.