How Did Asher Start?:

Asher had its beginnings in 1946 soon after the end of World War II. Eight veterans, all Christian Scientists, returned to Michigan State University to complete their education which had been interrupted by the war.

Although arriving separately, their common desire to establish a peaceful, harmonious, and supportive homelike atmosphere on campus brought them together in the home of Mrs. Beatrice Asher. The residence became known as Asher House, and soon many other students were applying to live there.

Later, at the time of formal organization in 1952, the Asher name was retained. The men, as well as the women who started a similar program around 1957, believed Mary Baker Eddy’s definition of Asher on page 581 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures described their home very well:

ASHER (Jacob's son). Hope and faith; spiritual compensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.

Asher continued to thrive in a large, new facility built in 1965 especially for the men and women at East Lansing. It was the only Asher House until 1968 when Asher-Los Angeles opened its doors. Thanks to the immediate success of Asher’s first program outside of Michigan, students in other parts of the country began asking for a house of their own. Under the guidance and with the backing of the Foundation, more than 20 Asher Houses opened all across the country throughout the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Currently, 12 Asher Houses are open and serving Christian Science college students attending more than 25 schools.

	Asher was a college home where sharing, support, mutual respect and the highest ideals of brotherhood were the rule and not the exception. I can honestly say my success in college was largely due to the atmosphere of Asher where I was able to live and study Christian Science.
	An Asher Alum