The First Structure of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ohio Since Kirtland
After more than 80 years the small church on the corner of Indianola and Ninth Avenues in Columbus, Ohio retains its Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints origins. The stone, the wood door and window frames, the pews, and the large stain-glass image of Christ above the entrance lovingly placed by members working with hand tools throughout a cold fall and winter remain in the structure. Now, more than half a century since the Saints sold the building and moved on, the little chapel is once again on a mission of “rescue.”
Although the Church’s footprints in Columbus can be traced to 1907, until Church members undertook to construct their own meetinghouse in 1929 they had met in rented buildings without a place to call their own. The lack of a chapel for the restored Church of Jesus Christ in central Ohio weighed heavily on Columbus Branch President Archie Brown and he prayed often for a solution. Then in late June 1929 as President Brown returned home from work one afternoon, he noticed a crew of men tearing down a stone building that appeared to be an old church.
“I asked the individual in charge about selling the stone and lumber which consisted of all the floor joists. The man had been greatly concerned and worried because he had to have the building torn down by July 10 so they could start bringing the fill (for a new structure) on that date,” according to President Brown.
The branch president assured the foreman in charge that he could have the building leveled if the construction company would sell him the stone and other materials. President Brown then asked for a price and when the supervisor told him $12, President Brown immediately removed his checkbook from his pocket, paid the man, and hurried home to alert his brethren of the Columbus Branch as to what they would be doing on the 4th of July. Within six days all of the stone, lumber, and other materials had been moved to the location on Indianola Avenue where the new chapel would be built and the work began.
Archie Brown and many branch members labored through the late summer, fall, and winter, an especially cold winter. Members donated individual stained-glass windows and Nellie Brown and her mother offered the large glass on the front of the structure on which was inscribed the name of the Church. President Brown gave the circular window above the door containing a picture of the Angel Moroni. When all was said and done, Church headquarters had contributed approximately $8,000 toward the structure while the local membership provided another $6,000. By February 1930, the chapel was ready for dedication.
On the 16th of February, President Heber J. Grant stopped in Columbus on his way to New York City to conduct the dedication of the Indianola Chapel. The Church president related his experience of coming to Columbus.
“Our party went to a hotel, arriving there about 7:35 a.m. and, at 10 a.m., we held a conference meeting in the new meetinghouse. The sacrament was administered and several of the brethren made brief speeches. Brother Russell rendered a solo. President Pond spoke briefly and I occupied nearly an hour. Lunch was served in the basement of the meetinghouse.
“Some brief remarks were made at the afternoon meeting by the missionaries and President Pond and I spoke for nearly an hour and dedicated their new building. It is a very credible structure for a small place. My daughter Rachel and Sister Pond spoke briefly at the meeting this evening. All three of the meetings were well attended. The new chapel is capable of holding twice as many people as there are members in the branch.
“We took the evening train for Cincinnati in company with Brother and Sister Pond and my daughter Rachel. My wife and Sister Macking went direct to Washington from Columbus.”
With the completion and dedication of the chapel, the Church took another step towards permanency and vibrancy in Ohio. Here, just a block from the Ohio State University campus, Church members met for more than 25 years until the construction of the chapel on Olentangy River Road next to the Riverside Methodist Hospital complex. Within these once sacred walls classrooms were segregated by hanging curtains from which new members were taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, youth were instructed, and missionaries went forth to share the precious message of the restored gospel. Future bishops, Relief Society presidents, and stake presidents learned their duties here and in this building more than 100 members gathered one evening in the mid-1950s to debate the need to construct a larger chapel and ultimately leave their little home behind. All agreed change was necessary, but two – Archie Brown and his wife Nellie.
During the next 40 years the Indianola building was purchased and rented by several faiths until the year 2000 when Mor Cassianus Yuhanon, a metropolitan archbishop for the Syrian Orthodox Church, acquired the little structure and turned it into a monastery serving the needs of the homeless population east of campus. Bishop Yuhanon was assigned to Columbus by the Syrian church’s pope after the former bishop died. Following an appraisal of Columbus neighborhoods to find the greater need, Bishop Yuhanon determined to organize a modest ministry in the most crime-ridden neighborhood in central Ohio – the community immediately east of the OSU campus and just blocks south of the OSU’s fraternity row. He quickly located the former Church of Jesus Christ chapel and decided it was perfectly situated to share in this ministry.
“The way I look at it, the spiritually healthy have no need of the hospital, but the spiritually sick do and I chose in 2000 to establish this monastery in the heart of the spiritually sick of Columbus,” Bishop Yuhanon said.
The chapel turned monastery serves 5,000 meals a month to the homeless and sponsors a work program whereby more than 400 people can gather at the location throughout the month in the early morning hours and find transportation to employers who need temporary labor. Bishop Yuhanon also conducts services every Sabbath morning at 10 a.m.
The interior of the chapel still retains a certain feel familiar to members. The old wooden pews on which hundreds of early central Ohio members sat to be instructed, to partake of the sacrament, and to ponder and pray, remain. The stained glass windows, though worn by weather, still radiate sunlight throughout the main meeting room. And the basement is ever useful today as it was when Church President Grant enjoyed lunch there on the day of dedication. Today, homeless men and women receive their best meal of the day surrounded by the walls that captured a prophet’s voice almost 84 years ago.
While the atmosphere is dramatically different from that which prevailed during those early days, it might be gratifying to those few Saints left who attended meetings on Indianola Avenue to realize the building is once again the center of Christ-like service. For, once a prophet of God journeyed here to dedicate this little building and bless the lives of all who would enter therein. President Grant may not have foreseen the mission to which the building is dedicated today, but the dedicatory blessing lives on.
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