diff --git a/lib/geocoder/orms/base.rb b/lib/geocoder/orms/base.rb
index 422a9b37757baa25a099f951b7a6592bd976fa45..e72a9687d4e193dca88584b87c28109ea2ca9ba3 100644
--- a/lib/geocoder/orms/base.rb
+++ b/lib/geocoder/orms/base.rb
@@ -2,14 +2,6 @@ module Geocoder
   module Orm
     module Base
 
-      ##
-      # Read the coordinates [lat,lon] of an object. This is not great but it
-      # seems cleaner than polluting the instance method namespace.
-      #
-      def read_coordinates
-        [:latitude, :longitude].map{ |i| send self.class.geocoder_options[i] }
-      end
-
       ##
       # Is this object geocoded? (Does it have latitude and longitude?)
       #
@@ -58,6 +50,17 @@ module Geocoder
           end
         end
       end
+
+
+      private # --------------------------------------------------------------
+
+      ##
+      # Read the coordinates [lat,lon] of the object.
+      # Looks at user config to determine attributes.
+      #
+      def read_coordinates
+        [:latitude, :longitude].map{ |i| send self.class.geocoder_options[i] }
+      end
     end
   end
 end