The 1866 “Old Methodist Church” was for sale in 1897, after the Methodists moved to a larger building on Church Street, in the upper left. The old church was soon a home and Christian Science lecture hall. (Ross Eric Gibson collection)
In 1897, Nelson and Lorraine Cornish left Oakland and came to Santa Cruz to live. When they saw the 31-year-old Methodist Church empty and for sale, Lorraine felt it was a sign. They bought the building, turned the Sunday School rooms into their home, and Lorraine invited the neighbors over to her house to learn about Christian Science in her cathedral living room.
Lorraine told those who came about her recent experience. A few years before, while living in Oakland, she began suffering from a terrible illness and despaired of a cure. Her brother-in-law, E.V. Fluno, said she should learn the healing principals of this new Christian Science, and it restored her to health.
Some recalled that the Quaker, Susan B. Anthony — a relative of Santa Cruz’s Elihu Anthony — had come to Santa Cruz in 1895 to advocate women’s suffrage. Susan had once praised Mary Baker Eddy as a feminist who founded a significant institution, promoting a view of women as more than just biological. Lorraine’s friends now wanted to learn more, and she held Wednesday afternoon Christian Science lectures at her house.
The founder of Christian Science was a frail, sickly girl who became Mary Baker Eddy. She’d grown up a prisoner of her poor health and felt that her emotions enflamed her spine with agony. Her father was a stiff-necked Calvinist whose Christianity was an apocalyptic war against the Devil. By belief alone, not good works, was the measure of his loveless Christianity, with no free will, for everyone was already predestined to be saved or damned forever by a merciless God. Mary recalled that “Father kept us in the tightest harness I have ever known,” a prison of darkness.
Another prison was her status as a woman, locked into a role of restriction and dependency, so common to that era. Mary was an avid Bible reader, taking comfort in Christ’s teachings and example, and by 12 she was writing heartfelt poetry, frequently printed in local newspapers in Bow, New Hampshire. Then her brother Albert brought home textbooks from Dartmouth College and let Mary read them. Her father was scandalized to find her reading Sir Francis Bacon, founder of empiricism and inductive reasoning; plus, the Enlightenment philosophers John Locke and Voltaire; and metaphysical naturalist David Hume, believing only physical reality existed. Her brothers Harry and Albert quietly defied their father, for the sake of Mary’s self-education. She came to believe that a religion of self-denial, sorrow and suffering was unhealthy. She joined the Congregational Church at age 17.
Lorraine’s Santa Cruz audience consisted of 15 people from nine households, mostly women who struggled to remember Lorraine’s lessons so they could tell their husbands at home, who were also taking interest. So the meetings were moved to Wednesday evenings, when husbands could attend after work.
Mary’s first husband died after eight months. During the Civil War, her second husband was held in a Confederate prison. Ill and alone, Mary tried a water cure sanitarium in 1861 but got no relief. So in 1862 she went to Maine, so weak she was carried to her hotel room. She sought Phinius Quimby, whose non-invasive treatment first put her into a trance-state, with suggestions for a return to health. In about six days she had recovered her health. Astonished at how good she felt, she stayed longer to study his methods. He was on a quest to develop “mental therapeutics” through early psychology, hypnosis, and mind over matter, using the mind to heal the body. As a woman who always felt helpless, Mary concluded that God is a power that is always with you. And hers was the God of love, creator and wellsprings of all good. Instead of Hume’s matter-centered universe, Mary believed that only the living spirit was real, and matter was the illusion.
Her husband escaped his prison and returned home. In the winter of 1866, Mary fell on the ice, getting a concussion and injuring her spine. She was taken home with spasms and delirium. Her mentor Quimby had died only a month prior from an abdominal tumor. Her doctor said she was in critical condition, and the pastor went to see her Sunday, perhaps to learn any last words. But she greeted him at the door, in full health. She no longer needed a Quimby, as she was now self-healing through scriptural readings and the ever-present font of life. And she didn’t need her husband, who recently abandoned her, so she divorced him in 1873.
Mary published her 1875 book “Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures,” then started teaching the lessons she had learned, organizing her students in 1876 into the Christian Scientist Association. In 1877, her third marriage was to her student Asa Gilbert Eddy in Lynn, Massachusetts. There she founded her first church with a group of 26 followers. Her churches were to operate democratically, with members elected as “readers” instead of pastors, and specially trained “practitioners” devoted full-time to healing. Mary made sure there was no church dogma or penalty to enforce using her healing method but felt healing is always connected to God through prayer. Even Mary had frequent bouts of kidney stones and took morphine on occasion to handle the pain. (KQED documentary “Soul of A Woman,” 1994.)
On Oct. 11, 1897, Lorraine’s little Santa Cruz group decided to become a Church of Christ — Scientist. They adopted articles of incorporation and were granted a charter three days later. Lorraine Cornish was chosen as their first president, with Miss Mollie Deason as clerk. They voted for their directors to be Sarah A. Leverington, Martha A. Deason, Sarah L. Bowman, Laura B. Alexander and Nelson Cornish (Lorraine’s husband), with Laura V. Stoddard as treasurer. The earliest practitioners were Lorraine Cornish, Laural Stoddard, Orrin Jackson and Laura Robinson. The 11 a.m. Christian Science services were advertised as at the “Old Methodist Church.” Sunday School began in 1899 at noon, following services.
In 1901, a Christian Science Reading Room was established in the Odd Fellows Building, next to the Cooper Street Civic Center, in the heart of downtown. This site drew many more people, so they started holding their meetings in a small room under the Odd Fellows Clock Tower in 1902, and a church construction fund was started. The “Old Methodist Church” was sold to the Catholic Church, which moved it near their High Street cathedral, to become Montgomery Hall for the Christian Brothers school.
After the 1906 earthquake there was an Eastside building boom, so local Christian Scientists purchased a large plot at Dakota and Ocean Street in January, for future use for its potential centrality. In the summer of 1906, newspaper editor Joseph Pulitzer tried to smear the 85-year-old Mary Baker Eddy in repeated newspaper attacks that she was senile and incompetent to run her wealthy church. This resulted in a lawsuit over the custody of her funds. The controversy only spurred the Santa Cruz Christian Science membership to outgrow their space, moving over 100 members to the larger Foresters Hall behind the bank at Pacific and Locust Street, then another growth spurt required using the largest meeting room at the Odd Fellows Building in 1907.
In the lawsuit, an independent psychiatrist/judge examined Mary, finding her sane and fully competent. The trouble had been started by Pulitzer’s newspaper war for subscribers through sensationalist news stories. Mary decided to fight yellow journalism in 1908 by launching her own newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor. Based on fairness and integrity, its motto is: “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” The Monitor was not only successful; between 1950 and 2002 it ironically received seven Pulitzer Prizes for excellence. The newspaper is now a weekly news magazine that publishes articles daily online.
In 1908, the Santa Cruz Christian Scientists hired San Francisco architect William A. Newman, of their faith. He designed a classical Greek Temple, and with some adjustments for budget. The architect reduced his cost to 5% of his usual rate and made a gift of the elevation drawings. They decided to build the Sunday School first at the back of the lot, without interior dividing walls, as a meeting hall, and the sanctuary site would be a flower garden until they could afford to build a large auditorium.
Mary called “Science & Health” a work in progress. So intent on getting it right, she revised it frequently, producing 418 editions. In the 1910 edition, she made clear Christian Science had nothing to do with “Spiritualism” (supposed communication with the dead, especially through mediums). She even denounced hypnotism, coming to believe it gave the opportunity to manipulate someone’s thoughts or behavior against their will. Sadly, the year ended with the Santa Cruz congregation mourning the passing of their beloved founder on Dec. 3, 1910.
As part of Mary’s will, a trust granted the Santa Cruz Christian Scientists $5,000 toward construction of their church auditorium. Building was delayed to consider if they should buy a lot in a more central downtown location. Construction was unavailable during World War I, and after the war, they bought a lot with $3,800 in Liberty Bonds. It was about to become a corner lot when Center Street cut through Church Street. But when Ocean Street was paved, it became a much more trafficked street. So they sold their downtown lot, and with plans by Santa Cruz architect Allen C. Collins, built their Ocean Street sanctuary in 1926, began services there in 1927, then with the bills all paid, dedicated it in 1928. Ed Penniman remembers as a boy his grandmother addressing the assembly, always on the theme “God is love.”
The church building was damaged during the 1955 San Lorenzo River Flood. So in 1957 the church bought an adjoining site, then in 1962 hired Norris Houk to design their new $80,000 ranch style church, made of adobe style concrete blocks, replacing the old building. Construction lasted until 1964, dedicated debt-free in 1967. In 2011, Santa Cruz Christian Scientists consolidated with the Soquel church located at the north end of Center Street. Their two buildings and parking lot on Ocean Street became the Resource Center for Non-Violence.
Mary Baker Eddy was on a quest for both physical and spiritual good health for all, regardless of denomination. She is well remembered for what followers call her “discovery the science of healing,” and her popular quotes, poems, and hymns. For example: “Reject hate without hating.” “Hate no one, for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last.” And from one of her hymns: “Fed by Thy love divine we live, for love alone is life!”
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