History of Pleasant View Retirement

In 1891, Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church, named her new home Pleasant View because of the loveliness of its setting. Her will directed that the site serve as the location for a retirement community. In the first year of use in 1927, the original Pleasant View attracted over 13,500 visitors. Within three years, Pleasant View was filled to capacity and faced a waiting list. In 1975, Pleasant View was sold to the State of New Hampshire who used the property for psychiatric patients. In 1981, the State vacated the premises. Two years later, Pleasant View was restored and returned to its original use: a privately operated retirement home. In 1984, the property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The location for Pleasant View is on the site of the former home of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder and leader of the Christian Science faith. She called her house Pleasant View as it overlooked the hills of Bow to the south, her birthplace and place of fond memories. She lived at Pleasant View for sixteen years from 1882 to 1908, while she formulated much of the spiritual framework of her new religion. Her will requested that her house be demolished to make way for the construction of a retirement home.

The building, a large, early 20th century Georgian Revival, was constructed in 1925 to 1927 to plans prepared by Boston architect Arthur H. Bowditch. The main building is sited to take full advantage of open southern views. Situated on 48 acres in Concord, noted landscape architect Arthur A. Shurcliff of Boston laid out formal gardens in the rear and to the west of the main building. Though portions of the landscape design were re-executed in the 1950s by Hooksett, New Hampshire landscaper Leon Pearson, many of the original plantings and walks survive, including the primary walkway. A late 19th century cast iron fence with scrolled gates marked the entrance to Mary Baker Eddy’s former house on the site and still stands.