Building Reports
[Excerpts from information assembled for the Reading Room Division by the committees of two branch churches]
In April, 1946, a committee of twenty was formed to study ways and means of moving our Reading Room from the basement of the church edifice to a ground-floor location in a district with active foot traffic. In June, 1949, the church membership authorized the opening of a building fund and the erection of a special Reading Room building on the church property. It was stipulated that money to cover construction contracts should be in hand before building operations commenced.
In December, 1949, ground for the new building was broken. Construction was carried on throughout the winter, spring, and summer. At no time was any money borrowed, nor was there any resort to pledges. Whenever each phase of the construction was complete, the money was on hand to pay for it. In June, 1950, the decorating work was under way. On Wednesday evening, August 1950, the Reading Room was opened to the public.
Fruitage from the resulting activity had within the first five months exceeded the committee's most optimistic expectations. Sales averaged from two to four times more than they were in the church-basement location. The number of visitors has been substantially higher, and the additional people are for the most part newcomers attracted by the Reading Room itself; others are men and women who are just beginning the study of Christian Science.
There is no question that this whole experience has blessed the committee and our church and that it is now blessing the community and indeed this entire field.
After the property for our Christian Science Reading Room was secured, the location committee, which had served diligently to obtain it, was asked to continue to serve as the building committee.
During the time required to obtain the type of property which seemed desirable for the building, the letter from The Christian Science Board of Directors regarding the value of accessible ground-floor locations for branch church Reading Rooms proved a source of inspiration and strength. The purpose of the Reading Room building was given much attention, not only by committee members, but by the church membership as a whole. As a broader concept of this purpose was gained, the original plans for a colonial type of building were discarded, and plans for a building of contemporary design, using much plate glass to give an open and inviting appearance, were drawn up and approved by the members.
A canopy was provided to protect passers-by who wished to read at the window displays. The window itself was left uncurtained so that strangers looking into the attractive salesroom would feel less hesitant about entering.
Before the building was completed, owners of adjoining property made improvements on their buildings, and in a short while a better view was afforded from the picture window in the rear of the large study room.
Approximately three years from the time the locations committee had started to work to find a desirable piece of property for the Reading Room the new building was opened to the public. At that time eighty per cent of the cost had already been contributed by the members and the congregation.
At the time the members voted to buy property and build a permanent Reading Room building they also voted to set aside the entire collection taken one Sunday each month for the Reading Room building fund. To increase this amount unsigned pledges were asked for from the members at the time the lot was purchased and again when the actual building was under way. These measures enabled the building finance committee better to proceed with the handling of monthly obligations.
On the Sunday preceding the opening of the Reading Room on its regular schedule of hours an open house was held to acquaint the community with the facilities of the Reading Room and its welcome for all visitors. In order that this opening might be more than the showing of a new building, thoughtfully planned exhibits were arranged at regular intervals, and Reading Room staff members were stationed near the exhibits to answer questions. In this way the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly, the biographies of Mary Baker Eddy, the Concordances, our periodicals, and other subjects were brought to the attention of visitors.
During the first four months in our new building the number of those using the study room has increased to almost three times what it was during a corresponding four-month period when the Reading Room was in the church edifice. It is more than thirty-five per cent greater than the number noted in a comparable period in a former location. There is an increase in visitors at all times of the day rather than just at the noon hour, as had been our previous experience.
The new building has attracted many strangers and a number of men and women who once studied Christian Science. The increase in sales has been as marked as that in readers. Sales for the first four months were almost double that of the same period the previous year. They were half again as much as those of a similar period in rented quarters in the same vicinity a few years earlier.
We feel that the increased activity in the new Reading Room is only the outward sign of the greater activity and awakened thinking on the part of our church members, who are more surely realizing the great mission of the Christ, Truth, as expressed particularly through Christian Science Reading Rooms, to heal and bless all mankind.
