Ryan Wisniewski
First Church of Christ Scientist
First Church of Christ Scientist
315 Wisconsin Ave.
Mary Baker Eddy organized the first Christian Science congregation in Boston in 1879. The movement spread to Madison five years later. After meeting in members' homes, then at Gates of Heaven synagogue, and then in the Women's Building, 240 W. Gilman St., in 1912 the congregation purchased a state Supreme Court justice's home on Wisconsin Avenue. The congregation built the present building there in 1929, next to the Madison Masonic Temple.
It was designed by Madison architect Frank Morris Riley, who also drafted plans for the governor's mansion and several fraternities. Its style is Georgian, and it features arched colonial windows, six stone Doric columns and a large classical copper dome. It now houses the Hiebing marketing and advertising agency.
