Property Record
423 Chicago St
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | First Church of Christ, Scientist |
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| Other Name: | First Church of Christ, Scientist |
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| Reference Number: | 23286 |
| Location (Address): | 423 Chicago St |
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| County: | Oconto |
| City: | Oconto |
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| Year Built: | 1886 |
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| Additions: | 1916 |
| Survey Date: | 1975 |
| Historic Use: | church |
| Architectural Style: | Early Gothic Revival |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Board and Batten |
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| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
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| National/State Register Listing Name: | First Church of Christ, Scientist |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 11/19/1974 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. 1ST CHURCH EVER BUILT, IN THE WORLD, SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS DENOMINATION. INITIATED BY LAURA SARGENT OF OCONTO, FOLLOWER OF MARY BAKER EDDY. DOWNINGESQUE CARPENTER GOTHIC CHURCH W/STEEPLY PITCHED GABLE PEAKED ARCH WINDOWS W/WOOD SURROUNDS. WIDE OVERHANGING EAVES W/LATTICE. Basement was added in 1916. The structure was built in three months for $1,137.20. This church was the first house of worship in the United States built specifically for Christian Scientists. After Mary Baker Eddy established the faith in 1879, it gained an early foothold in the bustling port city of Oconto, with its diverse population and ready exposure to outside influences. In 1886, the members of Oconto’s newly organized Christian Science society, led by Rev. J.P. Norcross (later the first pastor of Eddy’s “Mother Church” in Boston), erected this wooden structure. Eddy considered it a frontier mission for spreading the faith to the newly settled Northwoods region. Oconto’s First Christian Science Church was built in Carpenter's Gothic. Local carpenters displayed their skills as craftsmen, using lathes, jigsaws, and scroll saws to create elaborate wooden Gothic decorations. This church’s board-and-batten walls and pointed-arch windows are hallmarks of the idiom. Foliated carving graces the lintel above the double-door entry, latticework adorns the gable apex, and a gable-roofed bell cote rises from the roof ridge. About thirty years later, the congregation added a raised basement of rock-faced concrete block. The church’s well-preserved interior is simple, with three sections of wooden seats separated by two aisles. Two lecterns stand at the front of the room: one for the Scriptures and one for Eddy’s writings. |
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| Bibliographic References: | "LUMBER ERA OCONTO TOUR" HALL, GEORGE E "A HISTORY OF OCONTO P95-97 (OCONTO 1969) EDDY, MARY BAKER G "MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS" P148-149 (BOSTON 1897) CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR "FIRST CHIRSTIAN SCIENCE EDIFICE --50TH ANNIVESARY" (BOSTON 10/31/36). Peshtigo Times 6/4/2003. West Main Street Historic District, Oconto, Wisconsin Walking Tour brochure, 1979. Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |