Name: First Church of Christ, Scientist
Address: 632 11th Street
City: Astoria
Year of Construction: 1951
Architect: Wicks & Wicks Architects
Original Use: Religious (Church and Reading Room)
Status: In Use
National Register of Historic Places: Not Listed
Description: The architecture firm responsible for this small Northwest Regional style religious building near downtown Astoria was John E. Wicks, the city’s most prominent architect during the early twentieth century, working in partnership with his daughter Ebba. Ebba Wicks built an accomplished career in her own right: she was among the very first female architects to be licensed in Oregon, and she received training in architecture and urban design at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her teachers there included the renowned Modernist architect Eliel Saarinen. The relatively simple and naturalistic design of the First Church of Christ, Scientist reflects the influence of Ebba on her father. Its box-like volume is almost unrecognizable as a church, instead characterized by a grid of large windows recessed within a full-width portico formed by a cadence of heavy wood posts. The original design of the building has been somewhat altered by the expansion of the reading room at the lower level.
Further Information
• Ebba Wicks Brown, Oregon Encyclopedia [new window]
• Ebba Wicks Brown, Lower Columbia Preservation Society [new window]
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