For the longest time, I swore the white building at the corner of Moore and Everett Roads was once an old schoolhouse. An 1874 plat map of Delaware County seemed to confirm my hunch, but another published in 1887 showed the building as a church. Today, it’s a home. What gives? Eventually, I found out.
The history of Grace Methodist Church and Hamilton Township’s District 6 schoolhouse is intertwined. The congregation was founded in the 1830s in the home a settler named Isaac Freeman1. Freeman entered Section 30 of Hamilton County in 1835 or 1836 along with Solomon Burris; Lewis, William, and Samuel Moore; and Peter D. Green2.
The congregation soon grew too large for Freeman’s home and began meeting at the District 6 school nearby. A frame schoolhouse was built at the corner of Everett and Moore Roads in 1855, but it burned in twelve years later3. A replacement was erected in 18684.
Hamilton Township’s District 6 schoolhouse was commonly known as Jake’s Creek. In 1881, it moved to a new location 3/4 of a mile north of the previous school5. In 1885, John Minton deeded the original property to the trustees of the congregation in order to build a permanent sanctuary6. Erected “on the ruins of” the schoolhouse, the church featured tall windows and an open, arched belfry7.
Unfortunately, Grace Methodist Episcopal Church was abandoned by its congregation in 19198. By 1947, the building had been remodeled into a home. It’s been more than a century since church services were held in the tidy brick house, but despite years of suburban encroachment, the former Grace Methodist Episcopal Church in northwest Muncie remains a prominent Hamilton County landmark after all these years.
Sources Cited
1 Grace Methodist Church (1912, September 20). The Muncie Star. p. 9.
2 Kemper, G. W. H. (1908). Education in Delaware County. In A Twentieth Century History of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume 1. book, Lewis Publishing Company.
3 Helm, T. B. (1881). Mount Pleasant Township. In History of Delaware County, Indiana: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of Its Prominent Men and Pioneers. book, Kingman Brothers.
4 School history (1881, March 7). The Muncie Daily Times. p. 2.
5 Delaware County, Indiana. (1881 October 23). Deed Book 49. p. 254.
6 Delaware County, Indiana. (1885, October 23). Deed Book 56. p. 66.
7 (See footnote 1).
8 Greene, D. (1947, Sepetember 30). Seen and Heard in Our Neighborhood. The Muncie Star. p. 4.
