SPIRITUAL LIFE
Sign 4 photo.

PHOTO CREDIT: Methodist Episcopal Church, Madison Street, 1925. Image courtesy of Ball State University’s Bracken Archive and Special Collections.

Muncie has always been home to a diversity of spiritual and religious practices. Early residents did not have churches but met in private residences, inns, schoolhouses, and the courthouse. Clergymen often rode through the communities of east-central Indiana and administered religious services to the faithful at these makeshift locations. A Methodist church was the first house of worship in Muncie; it was built at the northwest corner of Washington and Elm streets in 1839. The Presbyterians followed with their first church in 1843 and the Baptists in 1862.

As Muncietown grew, faiths of all kinds established congregations and churches, including Roman Catholics in 1853, Universalist and Episcopalians in 1859, African American Methodists in 1868, and Quakers and Disciples of Christ in 1875. The first Jewish residents met in the home of Frank Leon in 1854, officially forming a congregation in 1895. By 1922, they dedicated Temple Beth El at the southeast corner of Jackson and Council streets. During the gas boom, many new houses of worship formed around the city and many congregations divided. Today, Munsonians of all faiths worship across the city in dozens of churches, religious centers, a synagogue, and at the Islamic Center of Muncie.

timeline
MORE HISTORY

Antioch Baptist Church cornerstone being laid in 1953.

1953 photo of the cornerstone being laid at the Antioch Baptist Church.

Antioch Baptist Church members moving Church cornerstone to 1700 E. Butler Street, 1953. Photo courtesy of Ball State University Library's Bracken Archive and Special Collections.


◁ Back to List of Signs