With apologies to Oakville, Cowan has a strong case for being the Queen City of Delaware County’s Monroe Township. The schools are there. The fire department is there. The Lions Club is there. The township trustee’s office is there. There’s even a scissor-lift factory that anchors the modern economy! Just as importantly, though, Cowan still holds onto a tangible piece of its busier past- an old Odd Fellows’ lodge.
I went to school in Cowan from sixth through ninth grade. I don’t make it back that often, but the unincorporated community is one of those places that’s always felt familiar to me. Of course, Cowan’s story stretches back well before my own: it began in 1869 when Charles McCowan platted the settlement, known also as McCowan’s Station. A post office opened that same year1.
McCowan’s influence didn’t fade after his death. Instead, he left behind $6,000 to help build a church and a school. In time, a village grew up around that core, complete with a post office, two stores, two sawmills, and even a tile factory2.
The Odd Fellows -a fraternal group historically dedicated to visiting the sick, relieving the distressed, burying the dead, and educating orphans3– set up shop in Cowan as early as 18854. A new lodge, No. 561, was dedicated in 19075. That’s the building that still stands at the corner of Grant and Monroe Streets.
Cowan’s old Odd Fellows Lodge ranks among the oldest commercial buildings in Monroe Township, and few structures have worn as many hats over the years. While the Odd Fellows continued to meet upstairs until at least 19306, the ground floor lived an entirely different life: at various times, it served as a buggy shop, a post office, a drug store, a grocery, a beauty shop, and a barber shop7. Pretty much, it was whatever the community needed most at the moment.
Then, beginning in 1968, the building entered perhaps its most fondly remembered chapter: for nearly a quarter century, until about 1992, it operated as King’s Smorgasbord. The restaurant drew diners from near and far with the promise of hearty, home-cooked meals at economical prices8. Upstairs, the building featured an enormous room with a stage at one end, left over from its lodge hall days9.
Long before I ever set foot in a Cowan classroom, I passed through the unincorporated village every so often. I was probably nine or ten when the old Odd Fellows lodge briefly reinvented itself yet again as Mike and Sue’s Greek’s Pizzeria. It didn’t last long, and neither did a business that followed it, Kenzie’s Café.
Today, the building has settled into a much quieter chapter of its life. Once a hub of fraternal meetings, commerce, and community meals, the old lodge appears to have been repurposed as a private residence. It was recently repainted this charcoal color but fortunately, it’s still standing, still evolving, and still holding onto the layers of its past.
Sources Cited
1 Flook, C. (2019). Lost Towns of Delaware County, Indiana. The History Press [Charleston]. book.
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 Love (n.d.) Independent Order of Odd Fellows: The Sovereign Grand Lodge [Winston-Salem]. Web. Retrieved May 31, 2024.
4 Resolution of Respect (1885, July 1). The Muncie Morning News. p. 1.
5 Cowan Lodge Dedication (1907, April 12). The Muncie Star. p. 16.
6 County I.O.O.F. Meeting Tuesday (1930, February 13). The Muncie Star. p. 14.
7 Roysdon, K. (2006, March 13). A smorgasbord of memories. The Muncie Star Press. p. 4.
8 Since 1968 (1984, January 25). The Muncie Star Press. p. 27.
9 (See footnote 7).
