It may be interesting and helpful to follow the human footsteps of those pioneers of Christian Science who labored to realize the lofty ideal of Church given on page 583 of Science and Health, and to establish their highest concept of it in this community. One of the first incidents of interest in connection with the movement in this city occurred in 1879 when Mrs. Eddy presented an autographed copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," the textbook of Christian Science, to Noah Porter, at that time the honored president of Yale University. This book was afterward presented by President Porter to the Yale Library, where it still remains.
In 1886 a physician of the old school who had practiced medicine in New Haven for forty-seven years, having become interested in Christian Science through the healing of his two daughters, closed his office and abandoned the practice of medicine. The doctor and his wife received instruction in a class taught by Mrs. Eddy, after which the doctor reopened his office for the practice of Christian Science. In connection with this event it is a matter of interest that his last patient under materia medica, was his first patient under Christian Science, and one who afterward became an earnest worker in this church.
The first class held in New Haven was taught by a loyal student of Mrs. Eddy in 1888. During the next three years Sunday services and midweek meetings were regularly held, first in a small room and then in a larger room in the Boardman Building, located at the corner of Chapel and State Streets.
