First Church of Christ, Scientist

Built in 1898-99 at the corner of Monroe Street and Lawrence Avenue in Toledo, this stone church was designed by Toledo architect E.O. Fallis and cost $33,937. Its plan forms an unusual Y, with three steeply pitched gables meeting at a central point and a square three-story tower at the eastern facade. The exterior is Ohio Amherst Blue sandstone in a rock-faced, random ashlar pattern, with large amber stained glass windows. Inside, a rotunda is covered by a domed ceiling with a skylit stained glass opening, and original wooden seats with cast iron supports remain in the auditorium, which seats 500. The congregation organized in 1890 under Sarah J. Clarke, a student of Mary Baker Eddy, who donated the land. Local records indicate this was the first building in Ohio erected solely for a Christian Science church and the third such branch church in the world. A 1947 addition designed by Fred M. Morris is the only major change. The Christian Scientists moved to a suburban site in 1965, and the building was sold to the Universal Community Church.