First Church of Christ, Scientist of San Diego in downtown's Bankers Hill neighborhood worships in an Irving Gill-designed sanctuary completed in 1910, restored to its original arched windows and stained-glass dome in 1998 after a mid-century remodel stripped them away. The congregation traces its local presence to approximately 1904, when its first building rose at Third Avenue and Ash Street — establishing one of downtown's longest-running worship traditions alongside First Lutheran Church, which has held Third Avenue since 1888. As a branch of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, the San Diego congregation follows the denomination's lay-reader format: paired readings from the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, with no ordained clergy delivering sermons. The church operates a Christian Science Reading Room at the Second Avenue location — a walk-in library providing access to denominational periodicals, scriptural reference materials, and quiet individual-study space. That walk-in format — no appointment or membership required — reflects Christian Science's emphasis on self-directed spiritual inquiry, a public-access model distinct from the parish-based programming at Our Lady of Rosary Parish OFFICE in the downtown core. The sanctuary's most architecturally significant element remains Gill's stained-glass dome above the nave, a structural feature that required a full engineering assessment and historically accurate reconstruction during the 1990s restoration after four decades concealed behind a dropped ceiling.