Albert W. Childress (1851-1934) was born in Grenada, Mississippi, and died in Dallas, Texas. He worked as a traveling tobacco salesman before moving to Dallas around 1873. There he invested in some real estate and was active in the city's development, building and becoming the chief owner of Dallas' first cable street railway. Childress married Mary S. Childress (b. Rutherford) in Wilson, Tennessee, in 1881. She studied Christian Science with Carrie Harvey Snider, a student of Mary Baker Eddy, and joined The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 6, 1894. During the mid-1890s the Childresses rented Mary Baker Eddy's property at 175 Poplar Street in Roslindale, Massachusetts, and were interested in buying it from her. Eddy conveyed the property to The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1898, and the Childresses purchased it from the church in 1900. The couple moved back to Dallas sometime between 1900 and 1910.

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