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Marion Mennonite Church

5460 North 450 West
260-562-2910

The original building was built in 1889 and was 28'x40', by the Marion Methodist Protestant Church at a cost of approximately $2,000.00. 

The entry had double doors that faced SR 120 and had a belfry on top.  There was a large stained glass window on the north side of the church.  A raised platform extended from side to side at the south end of the sanctuary which the pulpit sat on.  In 1949 a small basement was added by removing the soil under the church.  A three foot width of soil was left to support the foundation.  A furnace was also installed in the new basement. This eliminated the potbellied stove in the corner of the sanctuary.  The basement also contained four small children's classrooms.  These rooms were separated by cloth curtains.  We now had indoor plumbing as two small bathrooms were built at the north end of the basement.

It wasn't long until we needed more classrooms.  So we decided to remodel.  In 1956 the rest of the basement was dug and a new foundation put under the old part.  An additional 24'x38' basement was dug and capped with a roof with the intention of building on top at a later date.  In 1964 the pulpit area was moved to the north end of the sanctuary.  This also created a small room on each side of the pulpit.  At the same time we constructed a 16'x24' entrance and nursery area.  Finally, the sanctuary was enlarged by building on top of the basement that had been bug in 1956.

By 1976 Marion Mennonite Church was very much in need of better restroom facilities, classrooms and an entrance space.  Thus a 40'x80' addition with a full basement was built.  This gave us a new kitchen, fellowship hall, restroom facilities and women'ssewing storage room.  The basement contained 12 Sunday School classrooms, which meant we no longer had to use the sanctuary for those classes.

The building project was a very positive experience for the congregation.  We had numerous committees for planning.  We also had many work at night in order to do as much of the work as possible ourselves.  The MYF helped build our beautiful fireplace by gathering and splitting field stone.  The cost of this project was approximately $85,000.  Our goal was to have it paid off in five years but we paid it off in less than three years.