Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church

Not to be confused with Reid Memorial Church.
Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church

Memorial Presbyterian Church's manse and church building
Location Richmond, Indiana
Part of Starr Historic District (#74000026 [1])
Added to NRHP June 28, 1974

Reid Memorial Presbyterian Church is an architecturally significant church located at 11th and North "A" Streets in Richmond, Indiana. Designed by the Cleveland, Ohio architectural partnership of Sidney Badgley and William H. Nicklas the building was begun in 1904 and dedicated on May 13, 1906. The building committee had visited the Badgley and Nicklas-designed St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal Church (now St. Paul's Memorial United Methodist Church) which had been built by the Clement Studebaker family in South Bend, Indiana and the two churches have strikingly similar design elements in the sanctuaries. Reid Church was paid for by Daniel G. Reid in memory of his parents Daniel Reid and Anna Gray Reid. The church interiors and windows were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and the Tiffany Studios. The original organ designed by Hook and Hastings is still in use, though it was rebuilt in 1958 by the Wicks Organ Company. The organ was featured with a recital during the Organ Historical Society's 2007 convention in Indianapolis.

During the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan was a powerful political and social force in Indiana. In 1922 the Klan was introduced to Richmond by Robert Lyons, who began by recruiting at Reid Church, where his father, Samuel Ross Lyons (1849 – 1915), had been pastor years earlier.[2][3][4] Robert Lyons was eventually appointed national chief of staff for the Klan.[5]

The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a part of the Starr Historic District.

Notes

  1. ↑ National Park Service (2010-07-09). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ Lyons, Samuel. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=37270853. Retrieved 11 January 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ "In Memoriam Dr,. Eugene Leser and Rev. Samuel R. Lyons". Indiana University Alumni Quarterly. Indiana University. 2: 299–300. 1915. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Moore, Leonard J. (1997). Citizen Klansmen: The Ku Klux Klan in Indiana, 1921-1928. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 115–116. Retrieved 11 January 2014.
  5. ↑ "Klan issue in Democrat race for president", Richmond Evening Item, May 14, 1924, p. 1.

Future viability

Early in 2007, the Richmond Art Museum, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, Preserve Richmond, Inc. and the Wayne County Historical Society collaborated to host a symposium on the church's Tiffany history and to discuss the future viability of the church's dwindling congregation. A speaker from Partners for Sacred Places presented several possible alternatives but the church is still in jeopardy.

Sources

Coordinates: 39°49′51″N 84°53′16″W / 39.8307°N 84.8879°W / 39.8307; -84.8879

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