MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) - David Jennings cracked the plywood-sealed doorway of the former First Christian Church on East North Street, creating an opening that permitted sunlight, for the first time in nearly a decade, to push back the darkness held within the long-deserted space.
More than a hundred years ago, the sanctuary beyond that stone door frame would have been divided by polished, wooden pews painted in multicolored light that beamed through the church’s hand-crafted stained glass windows. On the weekends, the brick walls would reverberate with chiming wedding bells and worship, sounds that would emanate up the structure’s octagonal steeple that served as a landmark for the surrounding Gilbert Neighborhood since 1903.
But when David Jennings and his two sons, Matthew and Michael Jennings, saw the interior of their newly purchased property for the first time in 2018, that pristine sanctuary only existed in city documents and black and white photographs.
“When we broke in, there was no floor … we had to actually scale around on a piece of trim to get past the ‘no floor zone.‘” David said. “What was there was rotten, dilapidated and moldy … right when you came in the door, there’s this dead raccoon that had been there for who knows how long and a waterfall of sludge was falling from the roof.”
But, through the filth, David said he saw something in that structure that was fundamentally beautiful.
“We thought about this being torn down … this building is absolutely gorgeous,” Jennings said. “I thought it had to be salvaged somehow … we had to figure out a way.”
His youngest son Michael said the family is motivated to “revitalize” their home city and wants to preserve its culture. Michael said, however, that the fervor needed to complete this “labor of love” had to be sourced by something even greater.
“First of all, we are a Christian family,” Michael said. “We aren’t saying everything here needs to be ‘Christian’… but it’s a shame that a church like this could be abandoned for 20 years; God can still be glorified with this space.”
Less than a year after David pried apart the plywood seal, the Jennings family accomplished something no one else was willing to attempt; they gave miraculous new life to the long-dead church. The First Christian Church, now the North Church Venue, stands as a monument to the family’s ingenuity, a space they hope will serve as a lasting, celebrated space for weddings, concerts, parties and other events.
That’s great news for Zane Bishop, an administrator for the city’s Blight Elimination Program with the Muncie Redevelopment Commission, who said the property sat empty since at least 2007.
“Properties surrounded by vacancy see their values depressed, and vacancy breeds vacancy.” Bishop said. “Being the largest and most prestigious of structures in Gilbert, its vacancy certainly had a negative impact on the neighborhood and surrounding area.”
According to research compiled by the Delaware County Historical Society, the site’s origins in the Gilbert Neighborhood actually date back to the late 1800s when a congregation of Presbyterians that was meeting for church services at City Hall decided to buy the plot of land at North and Elm Streets.
After 81 years and several changes in denomination - which ended under affiliation with the United Church of Christ - the house of worship’s regular attendees had all but died out and the church officially disbanded in 1984. The property was purchased by another would-be preacher in 1985 but, later that year, was abandoned again due to lack of funding.
Articles from The Star Press published at that time indicate First Christian Church sat vacant for 17 years until 2002 when Spirit and Truth Ministries, headed by pastor Beverly Ann Plummer, began meeting at the location. Plummer held ownership of the structure until 2010 when local government officials, by then seeking $8,600 in unpaid property taxes, couldn’t locate her and concluded she had left the city.
In 2014 the building, which at that point had been decimated by years of exposure to the elements and vandalism, was acquired by the Muncie Redevelopment Commission through a transfer from the county.
Bishop said the city was eager to sell the church because, like the dozens of other vacant buildings owned by the MRC, it was a financial burden on the community. For years, no bids were received.
“The Jennings were the only ones able and bold enough to take on such a project,” Bishop said.
David Jennings, a Wapahani High School grad, grew up in Selma and, after graduating college, found lucrative work in banking. Having a lifelong interest in art and feeling creatively unfulfilled, David said he decided to risk his economic safety to start his own Chicago construction business in the late 1980s.
“I’ve been in construction now for more than 30 years,” David said. “I’ve worked on multimillion-dollar projects, buildings 10 times this size … but this church is the most dangerous building I’ve done.”
David purchased the church from Muncie for $100 in 2018.
Before he and his two sons could even consider renovations, temporary support columns had to be installed to hold up the crumbling roof.
“We rented out almost all the scaffolding in town to support that roof,” David said. “You had to hold the roof up just to be able to take it apart.”
Michael Jennings, who graduated from Lindenwood University with a degree in marketing this year, recalled being daunted by the task he and his brother were facing in helping to rebuild the long-decayed church.
“It was overwhelming: the roof was caving in, 24 tons of it had to come off,” Michael said. “When you’re carrying thousands of pounds of rubble, bucket by bucket, and tossing it out of broken windows it’s hard to envision an end product.”
The church is the first renovation the family has completed together. Michael “graduated early” from Lindenwood six months ahead of commencement due to COVID-19 and moved in with his older brother, Matthew, who had already joined their father in Muncie to help tackle the colossal project.
“We decided we’re all in quarantine anyway … let’s get some work done.” Michael said.
David said he didn’t foresee the church project leaving a meaningful impression on their relationships, but he’s happy that it did.
“As a parent, I love it … bringing the kids together, it’s wonderful,” Jennings said. “That’s not to say we didn’t fight … when you’re down here with a pitchfork trying to break through ice to get to frosted, moldy wood and you know you’re going to be doing that for another month, yeah, you fight … but we love each other so we got through it.”
With two to four people working at the site each day, the Jennings family was able to complete the renovation in about eight months.
“All of our equity is being able to work 16 hour days no matter what the weather and take pride in what we do,” Michael said.
In addition to the dangerously unstable roof, Jennings said the project was extraordinary for him in that, unlike the work he’s done previously, he wasn’t supported by millions of dollars in backing from investors. The result is Jennings had to rely more heavily on resourcefulness.
Virtually everything in the North Church Venue, from the bannisters to the tables to the lights to the wall décor, was salvaged from a New Castle scrapyard or from the wreckage of the First Christian Church itself.
Matthew built the entryway stairs out of church pews. Michael and David used busted church pianos to make railings and artwork. Chandeliers made of farming equipment and grandfather clock parts hang from the reconstructed ceiling.
“We literally kept everything we could,” Michael said. “It gives it an industrial or steampunk kind of vibe but we also kept the Victorian Gothic feel.”
Nature helps adorn the North Church Venue too. David, who has a degree in biology, offset the warm, wooden colors and Gothic, industrial aesthetic with flowers, plants and a walled-in outdoor garden. Massive boulders from Muncie’s Schick Sand and Gravel form tables and the exterior of a first-floor stage.
“We had to use an excavator to shimmy those boulders in through the front door … the back wheels of the excavator were floating because they were so heavy,” Michael said. “I was against it at first but dad was right … everyone says they love them.”
No one would guess that the Jenningses have no formal education in interior design or art. David said he and his sons take naturally to aesthetic and his sons were pivotal in early design decisions that shaped the Venue.
“We had about 4,400 square-feet of dungeon-like basement filled with mold, dilapidated wood, plaster, dead animals and 20 years of flowing muck coming from the roof,” David said. “We didn’t want to build it back into a Habitrail … you open it up and suddenly it’s beautiful.”
David compared the choice to go “open concept” at the cost of rooms and walls to another project he headed on Wheeling Avenue, the Red Sun Buffet building. He said, similarly, renovating that building for Bee Clean Laundry required a seemingly counterintuitive simplification of space.
The original stained glass windows at the church are perhaps the most obvious and striking use of salvaged material at the North Church Venue. Clear glass panels fill otherwise destroyed, empty sections of the vibrant mosaics that illuminate each area of the building. The windows bear the history of the church, both its artistry and its scars.
“You don’t fix the stained glass, you don’t paint it … then it will just look like everything else,” David said. “It took 120 years to look the way it does; you have to salvage what gives it so much character.”
David said the grueling months he and his sons put into the North Church Venue seem to have paid off. In addition to tens of thousands of engagements on its Facebook page and multiple requests for bookings in 2021, he said the community has responded to the effort with gratitude.
“At least four people a day stopped by for weeks to thank us for doing this, knowing the building wouldn’t be destroyed,” David said.
Michael, who is the marketing and events coordinator for the venue, said they are renting the space out for 2021 dates and will accommodate for COVID-19 restrictions as needed. He said he and his family see potential for growth in Muncie and they hope the North Church Venue helps breathe new life into the neighborhood.
“We want to see Muncie revitalized,” Michael said. “We’re partnering with local businesses, bakers, bars, entertainers, trying to work locally with them and we’ve gotten great feedback and a lot of excitement.”
David said he wants to use momentum from the success of the venue to take on more Muncie properties.
“My intent is to just keep right on going through downtown,” David said. “Anything the city doesn’t want, we’ll fix it.”
Each day, at sunset in the North Church Venue, a triple group of stained glass windows on the west side of the building glows brilliantly.
“You can tell whoever designed this originally knew about light, they thought about the way it came in at sunset” David said.
Aside from the more luminous sections of clear glass panels, David said the colored light must fall on what was once a sanctuary in much the same way it did nearly a century ago. He said he’s happy about the future he and sons might have secured for the historic building.
“It’s been an amazing project and I’m so happy it’s been part of my life,” David said. “I love the idea that this thing could potentially last another 100 years.”
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Source: Star Press
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