CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

The building located at 4241 Brookside Ave. started out in 1915 as the Brookside Community Church. In 1951 Brookside Church merged with the Methodist Meeting House to form Aldersgate. Aldersgate went on to build their present building on Wooddale.

The Christian Science Society began meeting in a private home in May 1951 in St. Louis Park, and bought the building on Brookside in August 1951. Its first meeting at the church was October 4, 1951. In 1953 it was recognized as a church (vs. a society) by the mother church in Boston. It occupied the building until Christmas 1988. Many influential Brookside families, including the Jackleys and Mrs. Smith of the Colonial Inn, were devout Christian Scientists. In fact, on June 7, 1951, the Christian Science Monitor published a half-page feature on Mrs. Smith and her business.

There was a Christian Science Reading Room listed in the 1956 and ’58 directories at 5407 Excelsior Blvd., which is around Highway 100.  From 1960 to 1968 it was located at 6108 Excelsior Blvd. 

In 1989 the congregation sold the building to St. Dunstan’s Anglican Church.