> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Church downsizes but stays downtown
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/church-downsizes-but-stays-downtown/
- Published: 2005-10-10T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:55:11.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Community, Downtown, #archive-import

*New church might be open next year*

*By JASMIN PERSCH Special to the Daily Press*

DOWNTOWN — A downsized church and a new residential building with retail stores on the first floor will replace the Christian Science church that’s being torn down here.

The preliminary design of the new 47,000-square-foot building at Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue is fitted for the church’s shrinking congregation with a sanctuary that seats 40 to 80 people. It’s significantly smaller than the old building, which had space for 500 or more churchgoers, said project manager Doug Singletary, whose architecture firm, P3, was chosen by the church’s building committee.

JSM construction, a local developer, bought two lots where The First Church of Christ, Scientist of Santa Monica used to be located. JSM will build a six-story, 49-unit apartment complex with three-levels of underground parking, and 28,000 square feet of retail space, said city planner Paul Foley.

After 10 years of discussion, church members decided to sell half of the property and build a smaller church because they no longer wanted to pay for the ongoing maintenance of the larger building, which was built in 1964, said Eileen Fraser, a member of the building committee.

“If you look across all churches, they continue to have less people attending,” Fraser said. “We decided to build a church more suited for our needs.”

The building committee still awaits city approval of the new design. It is uncertain when the new church will be ready for its parishioners, although the hope is it will be open next year.

Singletary said the new church also will have a Christian Science reading room, a Sunday school and a nursery.

The church got the permit to demolish the building in March, Foley said. But it didn’t start tearing down the building until Aug. 1.

Fraser said giving up part of the land makes it easier for church officials to pay for the construction of the new building. She declined to disclose the amount for which church officials sold the property, or how much the new facility costs.

Church officials decided the church should stay in its current location because its members are used to going there and the church had been downtown since 1889, making it the first church of its kind on the Pacific Coast, Fraser said.

This is the third time the church has been rebuilt on its current location since its original construction in 1924.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/101005-01_01.jpg)

(Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/101005-01_02.jpg)

Construction workers bulldoze the Christian Science church at the corner of Fifth Street and Arizona Avenue in downtown Santa Monica. (Photo: Fabian Lewkowicz/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 10, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/101005.pdf?ref=smdp.com)