September 11, when subways shut down and all streets were closed on Manhattan Island, thousands of people were left stranded, often with little money and no way to get home. The deserted bridges—the Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Williamsburg, and others—were soon filled with people who had to walk home—sometimes a journey of many miles. Because the Park Slope section of Brooklyn is the highest point in the area, people on Flatbush Avenue had witnessed the impact of the airplanes as they hit the World Trade Center, and then the collapse of the buildings. Many businesses and private citizens spontaneously opened their doors and their hearts to the travelers. Diane Allison, a librarian at the Christian Science Reading Room in Park Slope, opened the doors of the Reading Room in response to the events.
"I thought, 'I can't just stand here,"' she says. "The Reading Room needs to be open so people have a place to pray."
She made a sign inviting people to come in, and printed out 40 copies of the 91st Psalm and a poem entitled "Mother's Evening Prayer" by Mary Baker Eddy. She put the copies outside for people to take.
