Church Dedications

Note: Christian Science churches are dedicated only when free from debt.

Daily Times

Potsdam, New York (First Church).

Members of First Church of Christ, Scientist, of this village ... dedicated their church edifice on Sunday, May 25...

The history of the church in Postdam goes back to 1891, when a Christian Scientist from Buffalo was invited to explain to certain interested residents what Christian Science is...

In 1895 Potsdam's first group of students of Science began to hold regular Sunday meetings at the home of a resident, Capt. T. J. Tapley, who had experienced a healing. Wednesday evening testimony meetings were soon being conducted regularly. Nine years later the group rented the second floor of Stone's Gallery in Market Street. This provided an auditorium and an adjoining Reading Room, ... so that the public might have the privilege of studying the Bible and all authorized Christian Science literature.

At this time a Sunday School was established. ... A Christian Science Society was formally organized in February, 1905. ...

The first free lecture on Christian Science was given in the old Potsdam opera house in 1907. ... On January 8, 1919, the members of the society voted unanimously to purchase the home in which they had first held meetings. ... On January 26 title to the property was obtained, ... and the following month the members voted to organize a church, appointing a committee to draw up the by-laws. ... A grant from the Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker Eddy freed it from the remaining indebtedness, and on June 5, 1921, the first church edifice was dedicated.

The next development came when Clarkson College offered the property at 28 Elm Street in exchange for the Christian Science church building, corner of Main and Pierrepont. This gave opportunity for further expansion, as the new edifice was well adapted for a wider program of activity than formerly and allowed future enlargement. Extensive alterations were made in the summer and fall of 1947, according to plans drawn up by Charles Draper Faulkner, architect, of Chicago, Illinois. The completed wooden structure is white of early colonial design.

The gift of $10,000 from the Selina Cornish trust fund, together with $12,000 contributed by members and friends locally, provided funds to complete the remodeling and landscaping without incurring further indebtedness. On Thanks-giving Day of that year the first service was held there. ...

Today, freed of all indebtedness, the church is looking forward to a rededication of its members and to increased activity.

Daily Times
Watertown, New York June 4, 1952

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