{"nrhp_refnum":"88000467","name":"First Church of Christ, Scientist","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"520 Vine St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Scranton","county":"Lackawanna County","state":"PA","lat":41.408995557000026,"lon":-75.66006264199996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1988-05-09","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story limestone Neo-Classical Revival church building in downtown Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, built in 1915 for a Christian Science congregation and converted to a public library in 1987.","why_significant":"The building is regarded as an outstanding local example of the Neo-Classical Revival style among the large public buildings erected downtown between 1880 and 1930, and as a fine example of the work of local architect Albert J. Ward. Its alterations since 1915 are described as limited and largely reversible, which the nomination uses to support its integrity.","narrative":"Built in 1915 of Indiana limestone, this two-story building in downtown Scranton is dominated by a six-column Ionic portico that spans most of its front facade. Christian Science congregation commissioned it, a group organized in Scranton in 1879 that received a charter in 1882, the first granted to a Church of Christ, Scientist in Pennsylvania. The congregation worshipped there until 1985, when falling membership led to a sale to the Lackawanna County Library Board. The county converted the sanctuary into a reference reading room and the basement into a media center in 1987, moving the original screen and pilasters about ten feet forward and removing the pews. The building is considered an outstanding example of Neo-Classical Revival styling among the large public buildings erected downtown between 1880 and 1930. It is also regarded as a fine representative of the work of Albert J. Ward, a locally prominent architect active in the early twentieth century.","period_of_significance":"1915","architect_builder":"Ward, Albert J.","architectural_style":"Classical Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Converted from church to library use by the Lackawanna County Library System in 1987.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.1-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 17:11:36.072997-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_PA/88000467.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000467/41ba020672-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/88000467/41ba020672-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Smallbones","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christian_Science_Scranton_PA.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Smallbones</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christian_Science_Scranton_PA.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71998083","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lackawanna_County_Children%27s_Library","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5452710"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/pennsylvania/lackawanna-county/first-church-of-christ-scientist-88000467/"}