First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane

About

First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane is a heritage-listed site at 273 North Quay, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Lucas and Cummings, Architects. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 11 March 2016.

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane (1940) is a two-storey masonry building located on the western end of North Quay in the Brisbane central business district (CBD). Erected as the result of the growth of the church in the first half of the 20th century, it continues to serve the needs of its congregation. Designed by noted Brisbane firm Lucas and Cummings, Architects, the building is an excellent, intact example of their work and of modernist design. In 1950, the church was awarded the "Medal for Meritorious Architecture for Institutional Buildings erected in Brisbane between 1940 and 1949" by the Queensland Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).

During the 19th century, North Quay, running along a ridge beside the Brisbane River from Victoria Bridge ( Queen Street ) to the River Road (known as Coronation Drive from 1937), was a mixed commercial and residential area including a number of elite houses. Along its course were the Supreme Court Building (between Adelaide and Ann Streets); commercial buildings (Smith's Building - later Longreach Hotel - on the corner of Queen Street and North Quay, 1877–8; Helidon Spa Co building, between Skew Street and Eagle Terrace, removed 1897; Rankin & Morrow Biscuit Factory, 1896); and villas, houses and "cottages", primarily on its western extent.

The area transitioned from predominantly residential use to government, commercial and institutional uses commencing around the turn of the century. Aubigny (originally Rosalie Villa, 259 North Quay) and William Douglas Grimes' house (269 North Quay) were leased by the Queensland Government 1900–1904, then were occupied by the first Mater Hospital 1906–10, and subsequently became Loretto Hostel for Catholic girls. Large residences such as Riversleigh and Davidson's House were converted into boarding houses; and new boarding houses were constructed. Later, houses were converted into flats. In the 1920s the construction of the Grey Street Bridge, a major river crossing into the CBD from West End, brought land resumptions and road changes to the western end of North Quay, to facilitate traffic flow on and off the bridge.

The interwar period was a time of enormous transformation of Brisbane's CBD despite economic downturn in the immediate post- World War I years and the Great Depression from 1929 into the 1930s. A building boom between 1922 and 1928 and a wave of building activity from the mid- to late 1930s created new landmark buildings, extended and remodelled existing premises and spread business houses and warehouses into residential areas.

The development of the North Quay site of the First Church of Christ, Scientist reflected this transformative trend, when, in 1939, two allotments on North Quay, both with substantial residences, were purchased for the site of its future church.

Christian Science is a Christian denomination which places a strong emphasis on the Bible's teachings for healing purposes. The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America in 1879 by influential American author, teacher and religious leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who is noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health, which she named Christian Science.

The church has no clergy and each branch is self-governing and elects its own officers, but complies with the Church Manual of "The Mother Church" in Boston. An informal group of Christian Scientists can form into a Christian Science society or Church of Christ, Scientist, both of which are known as branches of The Mother Church. The society or church must comprise "at least 16 loyal Christian Scientists, four of whom are members of The Mother Church, and at least one member is a Christian Science practitioner" (listed in The Christian Science Journal).

Every Church of Christ, Scientist conducts Sunday services, testimony meetings, a Sunday School for pupils up to age 20, operates a reading room where information about Christian Science is available to the public, and organises lectures by Christian Science lecturers. Church services are conducted by two readers. These functions of the Church of Christ, Scientist determine the form of its church buildings.

Interest in Christian Science teachings started in several Australian colonies during the 1890s. The earliest recorded meetings began in Melbourne in June 1898 while several people met in the Brisbane home of Mrs Eliza Caroline Dutton before September 1899.

In February 1901, meetings were held in Mrs Helen Scott Byrne's home, Richmond Villa in Upper Roma Street, Brisbane; initially as a Christian Science organisation but soon afterwards as the Christian Science Society. Mrs Byrne's home became too small for services when attendees reached about 20, so the fledgling Society moved to the first floor of the Edwards Building in Adelaide Street at Petrie Bight, which could accommodate up to 100 people for services in its large room and had a smaller room for a reading room. In December 1901 the Christian Science Society formed itself into the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane with Mrs Byrne as the First Reader and Mr J H Granger as the Second Reader. Within less than a year, there were about 60 people attending services.

By 1909 the Petrie Bight location was inadequate, so the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane took over a floor in the Brisbane Permanent Building and Banking Co Ltd's premises at 139 Adelaide Street, between Edward and Albert Streets. In 1915, the Church of Christ, Scientist was incorporated under the Religious, Education and Charitable Institutions Act, 1861 in Queensland.

In 1917, the church purchased a block of land at the corner of North Quay and Tank Street for a church building designed by Thomas Wightman. The cornerstone of the First Church of Christ Scientist, Brisbane building was laid and stage one of the 300-seat building erected later that year.

Throughout the 1920s the Christian Science movement expanded, with new branches and bigger churches opening, especially in suburban Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as new groups meeting outside capital cities.

By 1930 the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane had outgrown its North Quay building, so Centennial Hall at 104 Adelaide Street was purchased for £16,500 and converted to accommodate 1000 people for services, while the Sunday School was held in a nearby cafe.

Due to growth of the Christian Science movement in Brisbane, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane formed, centred on the suburb of Clayfield. It built a church building in 1938 at Vine Street, Clayfield. This modernist building was designed by Robert Percy Cummings to suit the triangular site and to meet the particular spatial needs of the congregation.

By the late 1930s the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane again needed a larger church for its purposes. It purchased two allotments on North Quay to the west of its earlier site in c. 1939 (the Grimes' house, which was part of Loretto Hostel) and in March 1939 (Crossen-an-Oder). By April 1939 the house on the Loretto site was sold at public auction for removal.

The planning and architectural expression of Christian Science church edifices has been the subject of considerable discourse since the Mother Church in Boston was completed in the mid-1890s. Autonomy in the choice of architectural design and the departure from long accepted church types was supported by the Christian Science movement from the outset. In its formative years, and in contrast to orthodox churches, the Church of Christ Scientist adopted a Neo-Classical expression. By the early 20th century, Christian Science churches were increasingly inventive and eclectic. Excellence in design and construction and the use of high quality materials were common to all. Increasingly the principles of Modernism were adopted to create distinctive places of worship where the architectural form developed from the planning and practical requirements of the Church.

Early examples of this evolution in design include the 1910 First Church in Berkeley, California designed by renowned architect Bernard Maybeck. Other outstanding examples, in the UK and Europe, include the First Church (1903) in Manchester England, an Arts and Crafts design by Edgar Wood ; the First Church in The Hague, a modernist design by Hendrik Berlage (1925); Salvisberg's First Church (1936) in Basel, and Hans Hofmann 's First Church (1938) in Zurich.

The development of Christian Science church architecture in Australia closely mirrored its overseas counterparts. Eminent architects were selected to produce high quality buildings with characteristic operational and functional features. In the first two decades of the 20th century, Neo-Classical designs were preferred. Melbourne's First Church in St Kilda, designed in 1914 by Harold Dumsday of Bates, Peebles and Smart, and completed in 1922, has a temple-like form, Greek Revival elements and Byzantine influences. Sydney's First Church, opened in 1927 in Darlinghurst, was built in a Beaux Art style and is a major work by Samuel George Thorp, one of the founding partners of Peddle Thorp Walker.