January 2006                                                     The Megaphone                                                                 Page 3

Stephen's Tabernacle

by Nancy Sumner

The discovery of a RPPC (Real Photo Post Card) and a Temperance Broadside from Elwood in 1915 led to uncovering the following information not common knowledge these days.

The RPPC (below) shows Stephen’s Tabernacle and is dated 1915. The broadside is for an anti-Booze temperance speech presented by Stephens on Sunday October 31, 1915, at his Tabernacle in Elwood, Ind. I checked an old calendar and October 31 fell on a Sunday in 1915 so the post card and broadside are from the same event.                                          

October 31, 1915, was the last evening for the high-powered, soul-saving, "get down on your knees and pray" revival!! It was the culmination of 6 weeks of bible-belt preachin' !!

On Monday, September 13, 1915, it was announced that work on the Tabernacle had begun! On Sunday, Sept. 19, 1915, the building was finished and that night the first service was held!! That huge building that you see in the postcard went up in 6 days! All materials, lumber, electrical donated from local lumber yards. All labor was volunteer from area church men and other locals. The building was constructed on "the land of the high school playground." It was to be only a temporary structure and when the revival was over, the building came down!

For 6 weeks the revival carried front page headlines! There was no photo in the paper of the outside of the building. There was one of the interior. Rows and rows of pews in a shell of a building with rafter ceilings. Above the stage was the sign "GET RIGHT WITH GOD."

The evangelistic group toured all over the county. Just 3 days before the show was to go on...an article appeared in the paper...Tabernacle Collapses...Temporary Structure at Columbia City Went Down! Workers were putting on the roof and the building collapsed injuring over 20. The article indicated the rest of the building had to be torn down and rebuilt...in time for their Sunday services!!

Here's the surprise . . . the tabernacle was built on the land of the high school playground . . . as you can see here, that was the se corner of 16th and No. A Streets . . . the same plot of ground where the old gym was built . . . directly across from the library and directly north of the Union Traction depot . . . you can see the dome of the city building to the far left, the depot on the left, and the library on the right.

Well, that's it in a nutshell...long story - short!!! This postcard might be the only picture of the shanty-style building!

Library Sleuth at your service,

Nancy Sumner '66

Elwood Public Library