Second Baptist Church is a historic

church building A church, church building or church house is a building used for Christian worship services and other Christian religious activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 and 256. From the 11th thro ...

in the village of Mechanicsburg,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

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 territorie ...

. Constructed in the mid-19th century, it is the oldest church in the village, and it has been named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

Congregational history

Mechanicsburg was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

ted in 1814,''The History of Champaign County, Ohio''.

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

: Beers, 1881. and the town grew rapidly in wealth and population. By 1840, the value of real property in the village had surpassed ten thousand dollars, and another forty years saw its value pass one-third of a million dollars. The population likewise grew from 99 in 1830 to 258 in 1840, 682 in 1850, and 1,522 in 1880. From its early years, Mechanicsburg was a multi-racial community; one black resident was recorded in the 1830, and after growing gradually to 53 by 1870, the black population jumped to 209 in 1880. By the 1880s, Mechanicsburg's black population was large enough to support two separate churches: a Baptist congregation and a congregation of the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

. Formed in November 1872 with a charter membership of eight,Middleton, Evan P., ed. ''History of Champaign County Ohio: Its People, Industries and Institutions.'' Vol. 1.

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

: Bowen, 1917. only the Baptist congregation survives of the two; it uses the name "Second Baptist Church",Owen, Lorrie K., ed. ''Dictionary of Ohio Historic Places''. Vol. 1.

St. Clair Shores St. Clair Shores is a suburban city bordering Lake St. Clair in Macomb County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms a part of the Metro Detroit area, and is located about northeast of downtown Detroit. Its population was 59,715 at the 2010 ...

: Somerset, 1999, 121-122. as a white Baptist congregation had been founded in 1840.Ware, Joseph. ''History of Mechanicsburg, Ohio''.

Columbus Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to: * Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer * Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio Columbus may also refer to: Places ...

: Heer, 1917. In 1917, the membership of the congregation and of its

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

were recorded as seventy and fifty respectively; in its first forty-five years, the congregation was served by fourteen

pastors A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and An ...

. One of the ministers, Elmer Curry, founded the

Curry Normal and Industrial Institute Curry Normal and Industrial Institute was a school for African American students in Urbana, Ohio, 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 primar ...

at the church, modelling it after the

Tuskegee Institute Tuskegee University (Tuskegee or TU), formerly known as the Tuskegee Institute, is a private, historically black land-grant university in Tuskegee, Alabama. It was founded on Independence Day in 1881 by the state legislature. The campus was de ...

, but after a period of operating in Mechanicsburg, the school relocated to

Urbana __NOTOC__ Urbana can refer to: Places Italy *Urbana, Italy United States *Urbana, Illinois **Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois *Urbana, Indiana * Urbana, Iowa *Urbana, Kansas * Urbana, Maryland *Urbana, ...

.Marker #19-11 Second Baptist Church
historical marker,

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, 2005. Accessed 2013-02-20.

Church building

The first religious organization anywhere in Goshen Township was formed by

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

missionaries. Although the Mechanicsburg Methodist Episcopal Church's membership was small in the earliest years, it grew rapidly as a result of numerous

revival meeting A revival meeting is a series of Christian religious services held to inspire active members of a church body to gain new converts and to call sinners to repent. Nineteenth-century Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said, "Many blessings may come ...

s, which saw many people converted to Christianity under the preaching of men such as pioneer bishop

Francis Asbury Francis Asbury (August 20 or 21, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. During his 45 years in the colonies and the newly independent United States, he devoted his life to ...

. Between 1814 and 1839, they occupied three small church buildings in Mechanicsburg, and growth prompted them to erect a larger brick structure in 1858; they chose a lot that had been used as the village's first cemetery until another cemetery was opened and the bodies were moved to the new location. As the membership approached four hundred by the late 1870s, a thorough renovation project was completed. Nevertheless, growth continued, and an even larger church building was constructed in 1904 several blocks north of the previous one. Accordingly, the congregation sold the old brick edifice to the Second Baptist Church for $2,850, which continued to improve the structure; in 1917, a local author stated that "It is nicely decorated on the interior and is fitted with electric lights." Historically, the church boasted a peaked belfry above its entrance. This structure was cut down in 1936 following a fire at the Culbertson Buggy Works, next door to the church, which was catastrophic enough that the tower was damaged. The church's original bell was removed as a result of the fire and placed in the village school, although in return the smaller school bell was given to the church. Built of brick with elements of stone,,

, 2007. Accessed 2013-02-20. this two-

story Story or stories may refer to: Common uses * Story, a narrative (an account of imaginary or real people and events) ** Short story, a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting * Story (American English), or storey (British ...

building is Mechanicsburg's oldest standing church building. Architecturally, it differs greatly from the village's other historic churches; all of the others are

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

buildings erected around 1890, while Second Baptist is a

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

building that was thirty years old when the oldest of the other buildings was constructed. The churches are typical of Mechanicsburg's

built environment The term built environment refers to human-made conditions and is often used in architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, public health, sociology, and anthropology, among others. These curated spaces provide the setting for human ac ...

; most of the village's historic structures are Gothic Revival,

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, or Queen Anne structures from the late nineteenth century, and the only extant significant examples of the pure Greek Revival style are

Lawler's Tavern Lawler's Tavern is a historic commercial building in the village of Mechanicsburg, Ohio, United States. Built in 1830, it is one of the oldest buildings in the community, and it has been named a historic site. History Mechanicsburg was platted ...

(1830) and Second Baptist Church.Recchie, Nancy. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Mechanicsburg Multiple Resource Area''.

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

, December 1984.

Preservation

The Second Baptist Church was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1985. It was part of a

multiple property submission The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of Historic districts in the United States, districts, sites, buildings, struc ...

of approximately twenty buildings, scattered throughout the village in such a low concentration that a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

designation was not practical. While many of the other twenty Mechanicsburg buildings were houses, four were the village's other historic churches: the Mechanicsburg Baptist Church (formerly Methodist Protestant), St. Michael's Catholic Church, the

Church of Our Saviour Church of Our Saviour (or Savior), Church of the Savio(u)r, Church of Our Merciful Savio(u)r, or variations thereof, may refer to many Christian churches dedicated to Our Saviour (Our Lord), including: Americas United States (by state) * Church ...

(Episcopalian), and the 1904-completed Methodist church building. Like all four of the others, the Second Baptist Church qualified for inclusion on the Register because of its historically significant architecture, and it also was deemed important because of the place that it had played in Ohio's history. Its historic status was further recognized in 2005, when the

placed a

historical marker A commemorative plaque, or simply plaque, or in other places referred to as a historical marker, historic marker, or historic plaque, is a plate of metal, ceramic, stone, wood, or other material, typically attached to a wall, stone, or other ...

for the church along Main Street. The early twenty-first century also saw

restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

work performed on the building by the Champaign County Preservation Alliance, which by that point owned the property.Virts, Sheryl.
Champaign County Preservation Alliance to Celebrate Successes and Mourn the Losses
. ''

Urbana Daily Citizen The ''Urbana Daily Citizen'' is an American daily newspaper published in Urbana, Ohio. It is owned by AIM Media Midwest. The newspaper was part of the Brown Publishing Company chain that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 30, 20 ...

'', 2011-09-28. Accessed 2013-02-20.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Ohio 19th-century Baptist churches in the United States Religious buildings and structures completed in 1858 Churches completed in 1858 African-American history of Ohio Baptist churches in Ohio Churches in Champaign County, Ohio Greek Revival church buildings in Ohio Methodist churches in Ohio Churches in Mechanicsburg, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Champaign County, Ohio Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio