Eliel Saarinen, the world-renowned Finnish architect and designer, settled in Bloomfield, Michigan where he became affiliated with Cranbrook Academy in 1923. Effectively sited in a garden setting, the First Christian Church ranks as one of the first influential works of the great architect and a significant departure in American religious building approaches. Its bold structural arrangement of forms and materials is admirable and rare during this period of time. The building is one of the first important modern structures erected in Indiana. (Adapted from A Field Guide to Landmarks of Modern Architecture in the United States, by Miriam F. Stimpson)