Asbury Chapel

Description:	Drawing of Asbury Chapel by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect. Asbury Chapel, erected in 1841 at Fourth and Poplar streets. Drawing by Juliet A. Peddle, Terre Haute artist and architect.The Asbury Chapel was located on the northwest corner of Fourth and Poplar streets where the Graham Grain Company is now located.The organization of the Methodist church in Vigo County dates back to very early times. The Honey Creek circuit, which in earlier years included the Terre Haute area, was active before 1820, and the first services held in Terre Haute are said to have been held in the courthouse in 1826. The courthouse was used until 1834 when the Methodist Society took over a lot at the corner of Fourth and Poplar which had been set aside for a church when the town first was laid out. They raised $800 and built a simple structure on this lot.In 1841 they were able to build a regular church and the construction of the Asbury Chapel was started. The church was completed and dedicated that year. Two years later they hung the bell in the cupola. When they left this early church to go to the new location in 1894, this bell was removed and recast into little souvenir bells, a number of which are still in the possession of the church people.I have a drawing from the border of the old map of 1854 as a reference and a considerably more recent photograph which I have used as a basis for the above illustration. The materials would seem from the photograph to have been brick with white stone trimmings. The stone panel in the center of the pediment in the front was removed when the Asbury Chapel was given up and the First church was built, and it can be seen today where it has been set in the east wall of what we now know as the Methodist Temple. The Asbury church served its congregation until 1894 when it was decided a larger building was needed, more centrally located. The name was changed to the First church at that time. Since then it has been changed again to the Methodist Temple. The chapel later was torn down.The building is an interesting example of the Greek revival style. As far as I can make out from the two pictures I have, there were no major changes in the building from 1864 until the time the photograph was taken, probably in the early nineties, but I do find a difference in the window divisions. The small panes shown on the drawing of 1854 have disappeared in the photograph.Old Asbury, as it is affectionately referred to is another of the interesting early buildings of Terre Haute which helped to give the early town a distinctive character of which we have only meager glimpses today.
Origin:	01/01/2005
Contributor(s):	Peddle, Juliet, 1899-1979
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/rose/id/818
Collection:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Logan Library
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Architectural drawings Architecture Churches Methodist churches Steeples Architecture Religion

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