The Cadle Tabernacle was a church established in
Indianapolis,
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
, in 1921 by its founder,
E. Howard Cadle. Named in honor of Cadle's mother, Loretta "Etta" Cadle, the building served as a center for evangelical programs and broadcasts on the
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...
, radio station
WLW
WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One.
WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
in the 1930s, reaching listeners throughout the
Midwest and parts of the
South. The building's seating capacity of 10,000 made it the largest of its kind in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
when it was built. Cadle Tabernacle was demolished in 1968 and the site was used for other purposes.
Early years
Following his conversion to
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
and overcoming alcohol and gambling addiction,
E. Howard Cadle, an Indiana businessman who owned a chain of shoe repair shops and worked as a car salesman, had a strong desire to evangelize. After studying the large crowds that traveling evangelists attracted, he decided to construct a building in Indianapolis for their use.
[Zeigler, p. 2.] Cadle took note of the upcoming revival tour by
Rodney "Gipsy" Smith and his choir in Indianapolis, a widely publicized event in the spring of 1921. He met with Smith to discuss the choir's future meeting plans as the revival ended. These initially included monthly meetings and interval concerts.
[Anderson, p. 312.]
On May 20, 1921, a month after his meeting with Smith, Cadle expanded his initial goal of sponsoring meetings to establishing a permanent structure whose estimated cost was $75,000. The plans for the building included seating for 10,000 and 1,000 choir seats,
though the final number of seats for the choir was 1,400.
The tabernacle's seating capacity made it the largest in the United States.
Construction on the building began in the summer of 1921 with workers rushing to complete it in time for the dedication services later that fall. The final construction cost was $305,000
[Anderson, p. 315.] ($4.3 million adjusted for inflation), significantly higher than the initial estimate.
Gypsy Smith and his choir returned for the dedication services on October 9, 1921. The tabernacle was filled to capacity and an estimated 10,000 more turned away. During the dedication program, Cadle also addressed the gathering, explaining how his mother prayed for his conversion, praising the choir, and unveiling life-size portraits of himself and his mother, hung on either side of the choir loft.
Cadle named the new building in honor of his mother, Loretta "Etta" Cadle.
Controversies
The initial plan for the Cadle Tabernacle was to allow Gypsy Smith's revival choir to organize on a permanent basis. This led to controversy, which was well publicized in newspapers at the time. The
Methodists, a large and influential section of Indianapolis's
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
base, feared it would interfere with their ministry plans. Other ministries, such as the
Unitarians, felt that the tabernacle hurt Christian unity by splitting religious groups in Indianapolis. Cadle denied these accusations and others that claimed he created the Cadle Tabernacle for self-serving motives. Additional issues arose when Indianapolis Mayor
Charles Jewett misunderstood the building's purpose as dedicated to the city of Indianapolis, allowing it to be used for municipal functions. The misunderstanding occurred after Cadle promised to use the building for public uses but not to donate it to Indianapolis.
In November 1921, Cadle and the tabernacle's board disputed control of the tabernacle's evangelistic program. The board gained final authority, but Cadle disagreed with the decision. The dispute led
Bob Jones, who planned to meet at the tabernacle, to cancel his plans.
[Anderson, p. 316.] A month later, in December 1921, Cadle announced his plans to turn the tabernacle into a multi-use convention center,
at a time when the largest public auditorium in Indianapolis seated 3,500.
Samuel L. Shank, the newly elected mayor of Indianapolis, proposed buying the tabernacle building, but Cadle refused. Mayor Shank pointed out that legal action might be taken against the tabernacle and its tax exemption as a religious institution cancelled if it held secular events. He never pursued this, however.
Another issue occurred in April 1923 when a group of
Ku Klux Klan members gave $600 and a letter of appreciation to visiting evangelist E.J. Bulgin and the Cadle Tabernacle Evangelistic Association. This led ''Tolerance'', a Chicago-based anti-Klan newspaper, to claim that the Klan funded E. Howard Cadle.
[Anderson, p. 318.] After a dispute with the board, who encouraged him to leave the tabernacle,
Cadle sold his financial interest to the building in June 1923 to an organization that promised to continue its religious program before moving to
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. The details of the disagreement between Cadle and the tabernacle's board are unclear. They were accused of targeting Cadle for taking money from the offering, an unsubstantiated claim.
It is possible that Cadle may have had financial problems too.
After Cadle left Indiana, the tabernacle sponsored various events, including boxing matches (one of which Cadle protested in October 1928) and
dance marathons.
On May 12, 1924, the Klan met at the tabernacle under Grand Dragon
D. C. Stephenson
David Curtis "Steve" Stephenson (August 21, 1891 – June 28, 1966) was an American Ku Klux Klan (KKK) leader, convicted rapist and murderer. In 1923 he was appointed Grand Dragon of the Indiana Klan and head of Klan recruiting for seven other s ...
to declare the
Hoosier Klan was independent from the Klan's headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, due to disagreements over the organization's operations.
Outside of these events, during much of the 1920s the tabernacle fell into disuse. Ownership eventually reverted to the bank until Cadle returned to Indianapolis in 1931. With a fundraising event and media support,
[Anderson, p. 320.] he raised enough money to reopen the tabernacle in October 1931, ten years after its initial opening.
[Anderson p. 321.]
Radio revival
After the Cadle Tabernacle reopened in 1931, Cadle began doing radio broadcasts from the tabernacle,
although they were initially aired only locally. In 1932, Cadle secured a deal with
WLW
WLW (700 AM) is a commercial news/talk radio station licensed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Owned by iHeartMedia, WLW is a clear-channel station, often identifying itself as The Big One.
WLW operates with around the clock. Its daytime signal provides ...
, a radio station based in
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...
. The station's new high-wattage signals, capable of transmitting at 500,000-watts by 1934, could reach
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and parts of
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
under ideal conditions.
However, most of the station's listeners lived in the
Midwest and upper
South, where the station enjoyed its best reception.
[Slutz, p. 17.] The station's high-power broadcasts led to an increased listener base compared to its previous 50,000-watt broadcasts and WLW reported receiving five times its typical amount of mail six months after the wattage increase.
WLW was also the first station in the United States approved to broadcast at the higher wattage.
WLW broadcast Cadle's program, "The Nation's Family Prayer Period", every morning for a decade.
The program featured singing by his wife, Ola Cadle, or a guest performer. His son, Buford Cadle, introduced and closed the broadcasts, which ran from 6:00 to 6:15 a.m, Monday to Saturday, and from 11:00 to 11:30 a.m. on Sunday. Topics often included how Cadle went from being an alcoholic to the founder of the world's largest interdenominational institution.
[Anderson, p. 322.]
In 1934, the Cadle Tabernacle received an average of 24,000 letters a month, requiring twenty staff members to process. By 1939, the volume of letters had decreased to an estimated 4,000 a week and the program's estimated listening range was thirty million.
Listeners used his broadcast as part of their devotional period, with some considering Cadle a close friend. Cadle also broadened the reach of his broadcast so more rural areas could listen, giving out free radios. An estimated 330 to 600 rural mountain churches (about 60,000 people) tuned into his show in southern Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio.
In the late 1930s, the
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
required WLW to reduce its broadcast wattage from 500,000 to 50,000 watts. After this change, Cadle began broadcasting his program on the
Mutual Broadcasting System
The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...
, a nationwide radio network, beginning in the early 1940s.
[Slutz, p. 25.]
Decline and new uses
After Cadle's death in 1942, his wife, Ola Cadle, took over as president and director of the tabernacle, while the couple's children, Buford Cadle, Helen Cadle, and Virginia Ann Cadle, ran the evangelism business.
B. R. Lakin
Bascom Ray Lakin (January 5, 1901 – March 15, 1984) was a Baptist preacher and evangelist.
B. R. Lakin was born on a farm near Fort Gay, West Virginia, on the Kentucky border. His mother had prayed for a "preacher man" and had dedicated him to ...
, a Baptist preacher and evangelist, took over Cadle's position as senior pastor and continued to broadcast his program.
In 1952 the Cadle family began to air a short-lived television program hosted in the tabernacle.
After Ola Cadle's death in 1955, the tabernacle was rented to a range of groups, including the annual
Indiana State Teachers Association conferences and
Shortridge High School
Shortridge High School is a public high school located in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Shortridge is the home of the International Baccalaureate and arts and humanities programs of the Indianapolis Public Schools district.(IPS). Originall ...
graduations.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
also spoke at the tabernacle on December 12, 1958.
By the late 1960s, the tabernacle was in need of repairs. A historian visiting the property in 1967 noted the dirty walls and creaky floors. A buyer also became interested in purchasing the land.
On November 1, 1968, the decision was made to demolish the tabernacle, accomplished before the end of the year. The vacant property was used as a parking lot for the
Indiana National Bank Tower, which was under construction at the time.
Later, the parking lot was replaced with a housing development.
Description
The Cadle Tabernacle was built in 1921 in downtown Indianapolis at the northwest corner of New Jersey and Ohio Streets, a block east of the
Old Indianapolis City Hall. Its final cost was $305,000
($4.3 million adjusted for inflation). The tabernacle had 19 entrances, 226 windows, and a floor of crushed limestone.
Its seating for 10,000 and a 1,400-person choir made it the largest of its kind in the United States.
The
Spanish-Mission style building, which covered a quarter of a city block, had whitewashed walls and a red tiled roof.
[ Its Ohio Street facade was influenced by the Alamo.] Constructed mainly from stucco, the interior was painted ivory and its steel roof supports were painted green. The tabernacle's stage could be reconfigured for pageants and other events.
The tabernacle building was demolished in the late 1960s; the vacant lot was used as a parking lot.[
]
Legacy
The Cadle Tabernacle functioned as a meeting hall and a multi-disciplinary religious institution, especially from its heights between 1921 and 1955. It also played a major role in the evangelical community of the Midwest and upper South when E. Howard Cadle was an active evangelist. Cadle and other notable evangelists, including Billy Sunday
William Ashley "Billy" Sunday (November 19, 1862 – November 6, 1935) was an American outfielder in baseball's National League and widely considered the most influential American evangelist during the first two decades of the 20th century.
Bo ...
and Oral Roberts
Granville Oral Roberts (January 24, 1918 – December 15, 2009) was an American Charismatic Christian televangelist, ordained in both the Pentecostal Holiness and United Methodist churches. He is considered one of the forerunners of t ...
, preached at the site. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr gave an address there in 1958. The building's decline in the 1960s and its demolition in 1968 left the site largely forgotten.
References
External links
Cadle Tabernacle
Bass Photo Company Collection, Indiana Historical Society
{{authority control
Churches in Indianapolis
Churches completed in 1921