Volunteers transform old church into community center

ALBION, Ind. (AP) - Until recently, Ed Sprague didn't know a lot about the Sweet Church.

"I knew very little about it, other than it sat across the road from the Sweet Cemetery," Sprague told The News-Sun (http://bit.ly/1K1EBgT ). "I've lived at Skinner Lake for almost 23 years and really until the last five or six didn't know much about Sweet Church at all. It's sort of like looking into your family history, except this is my residential history."

Four years ago, a neighbor who served as president of the Sweet Church Community Organization asked Sprague to be part of the board. Sprague, who had recently retired, agreed.

"I play an awful lot of golf, but you can't do that all year 'round," he said. "So I said sure."

A year later he was elected president of the organization. Now he wants to let others who may be unaware of the Sweet Church Community Center know that the historic building is there and available for events of all types.

"Just about anything you want to have where there's less than 100 people, Sweet Church is available for use," he said.

The building itself has had a varied history. Built in 1875 by George Harvey, whose other building credits include the Noble County Courthouse and jail, it served for many years as a nondenominational church called the Jefferson Union Township Church. Over time it became known as the Sweet Church, named for James Sweet, who had donated the land for the building.

Eventually the congregation fizzled out - Sprague guesses it was difficult for someone to come every Sunday to stoke the building's potbelly stove - and the building sat abandoned for nearly 40 years. For a time, it was even used to store grain, Sprague said.

In 2001, a group gathered to try and save the building, and in 2002 the nonprofit Sweet Church Community Organization was formed.

A group of about 25 to 30 volunteers was actively involved in the renovation of the church, Sprague said, sometimes paying to have work done, but mostly doing it themselves. Among the projects completed over the next 10 years were straightening the building's south wall, repointing the bricks, straightening and repainting the metal roof, taking out and refurbishing all the windows, sanding and cleaning the doors and floors and putting new drywall on the ceiling.

One volunteer who has since passed away, Bonnie Bennett, made a stencil in the pattern of the church's original stencil. She stenciled the interior all by herself over several months, Sprague said.

"When you walk in here, you think about Bonnie Bennett," he said.

The old church bell was taken out, cleaned and put back in the steeple. Visitors to the building are encouraged to ring it as they enter, Sprague said.

The building, along with the cemetery, was added to National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

"For volunteers to bring this building back to this look was awesome," Sprague said. "Just about everyone we have here is in awe of how pretty the building is on the inside."

In 2012 an annex was added thanks to a donation from the Forker family, giving the facility running water and restroom facilities - the building had used an outhouse to that point. The annex also provides heat and air conditioning to the church building.

No longer used as a church, the building serves as a community center, hosting meetings of the Jefferson Township 4-H and Skinner Lake Homeowners Association.

"We have birthday parties, Thanksgiving parties, family get-togethers, reunions," Sprague said. "We've even had two funerals here for people that want to be interred in Sweet Cemetery, which is right across the road. It really makes a pretty nice ceremony.

"We don't make a lot of money off the rentals. That's not our goal. This is a grand old building, and we want people to take advantage of it."

The center hosts two square dances a year, as well as annual events like the Sweet and Simple Christmas in early December and the Sweet Church Homecoming in October.

The Homecoming is the center's largest event and fundraiser, attracting about 200 people. A pulled pork meal and pie auction held as part of event has seen pies sell for as much as $2,000, Sprague said.

"When we finished (the annex), we were less than $25,000 in debt. Last year we were completely out of debt," he said.

The community organization hopes to add more amenities for young people to use. A swing set has been added, and the group hopes to add a basketball half-court as well as a pool and Ping-Pong tables.

The group also wants to replace the stenciled plywood sign that currently marks the building with a stained-glass window similar to what originally adorned the church.

"I can't think of what else we have to do to the church except let people use it," Sprague said.

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Information from: The News-Sun, http://www.kpcnews.com