First Church of Christ, Scientist (Berkeley, California)


First Church of Christ, Scientist, Berkeley, now also known as Christian Science Society, Berkeley, is a Christian Science church, located at 2619 Dwight Way at Bowditch Street across the street from People's Park, in the South Berkeley neighborhood of Berkeley, in Alameda County, California.
The Christian Science Society, Berkeley continues to meet in their over-100-year-old church building.

History

The historic 1910 church was designed by renowned architect Bernard Ralph Maybeck, in a primarily American Craftsman style, with Byzantine Revival, Romanesque Revival, and Gothic Revival style elements. The church is widely considered one of Maybeck's masterpieces.
The basic plan is that of a square or Greek cross, with two pair of great crossed trusses spanning the central space overhead. In 1929 a Sunday School addition was added to the Church.

Landmark

It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1977, and is on the National Register of Historic Places in Alameda County, California.
In October 2005, the Friends of First Church Berkeley were awarded a prestigious federal Save America's Treasurers Grant, for the roof replacement and seismic strengthening of the 1910 Church and much of the 1929 Sunday School addition. The church received a Getty Architectural Conservation Implementation Grant in 2006, to enable the completion of the seismic strengthening of the Church and Sunday School addition. In 2009 and 2010, the Friends of First Church Berkeley received University of California Berkeley Chancellor's Community Partnership Grants for restoring the garden setting of the church.