First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane is a heritage-listed site at 273 North Quay, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Lucas and Cummings, Architects. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 11 March 2016.
History
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Brisbane (1940) is a two-storey masonry building located on the western end of North Quay in the Brisbane central business district (CBD). Erected as the result of the growth of the church in the first half of the 20th century, it continues to serve the needs of its congregation. Designed by noted Brisbane firm Lucas and Cummings, Architects, the building is an excellent, intact example of their work and of modernist design. In 1950, the church was awarded the "Medal for Meritorious Architecture for Institutional Buildings erected in Brisbane between 1940 and 1949" by the Queensland Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).
During the 19th century, North Quay, running along a ridge beside the Brisbane River from Victoria Bridge (Queen Street) to the River Road (known as Coronation Drive from 1937), was a mixed commercial and residential area including a number of elite houses. Along its course were the Supreme Court Building (between Adelaide and Ann Streets); commercial buildings (Smith's Building - later Longreach Hotel - on the corner of Queen Street and North Quay, 1877-8; Helidon Spa Co building, between Skew Street and Eagle Terrace, removed 1897; Rankin & Morrow Biscuit Factory, 1896); and villas, houses and "cottages", primarily on its western extent.
The area transitioned from predominantly residential use to government, commercial and institutional uses commencing around the turn of the century. Aubigny (originally Rosalie Villa, 259 North Quay) and William Douglas Grimes' house (269 North Quay) were leased by the Queensland Government 1900-1904, then were occupied by the first Mater Hospital 1906-10, and subsequently became Loretto Hostel for Catholic girls. Large residences such as Riversleigh and Davidson's House were converted into boarding houses; and new boarding houses were constructed. Later, houses were converted into flats. In the 1920s the construction of the Grey Street Bridge, a major river crossing into the CBD from West End, brought land resumptions and road changes to the western end of North Quay, to facilitate traffic flow on and off the bridge.
The interwar period was a time of enormous transformation of Brisbane's CBD despite economic downturn in the immediate post-World War I years and the Great Depression from 1929 into the 1930s. A building boom between 1922 and 1928 and a wave of building activity from the mid- to late 1930s created new landmark buildings, extended and remodelled existing premises and spread business houses and warehouses into residential areas.
The development of the North Quay site of the First Church of Christ, Scientist reflected this transformative trend, when, in 1939, two allotments on North Quay, both with substantial residences, were purchased for the site of its future church.
Christian Science is a Christian denomination which places a strong emphasis on the Bible's teachings for healing purposes. The Church of Christ, Scientist was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America in 1879 by influential American author, teacher and religious leader, Mary Baker Eddy, who is noted for her groundbreaking ideas about spirituality and health, which she named Christian Science.
The church has no clergy and each branch is self-governing and elects its own officers, but complies with the Church Manual of "The Mother Church" in Boston. An informal group of Christian Scientists can form into a Christian Science society or Church of Christ, Scientist, both of which are known as branches of The Mother Church. The society or church must comprise "at least 16 loyal Christian Scientists, four of whom are members of The Mother Church, and at least one member is a Christian Science practitioner" (listed in The Christian Science Journal).
Every Church of Christ, Scientist conducts Sunday services, testimony meetings, a Sunday School for pupils up to age 20, operates a reading room where information about Christian Science is available to the public, and organises lectures by Christian Science lecturers. Church services are conducted by two readers. These functions of the Church of Christ, Scientist determine the form of its church buildings.