Two Methodist congregations in Greencastle combined to form Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church, laying the foundation for its current building in 1928. The stock market crash posed a major funding challenge for the church’s construction, but with financial backing from the Methodist Church and DePauw University, the Gothic Revival style building opened in 1929. Designed by Indiana architect Alfred Grindle, the church features a pipe organ funded by Josiah K. Lilly, son of pharmacist Eli Lilly, who opened his first drugstore in Greencastle in 1861. Through the next century, Gobin hosted the annual School for the Prophets, an event that eventually brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to their pulpit in September of 1960. The church was instrumental in the establishment of Putnam County’s NAACP and its reorganization in 2021. Gobin Church became a Reconciling congregation in 2000, embracing LGBTQ+ members in church leadership positions.

Today, Gobin Memorial continues as a welcoming community space for Greencastle. The church’s Getting Ahead program meets weekly to discuss useful topics for under-resourced individuals while connecting participants to necessary community agencies and providing support like Pay It Forward, is an interest-free loan program. Since its founding in 2014, participants in the Getting Ahead program have purchased new homes, completed educational goals, started new businesses, and given back to the community. The congregation organizes a Summer Enrichment program, serves women in the county jail, and facilitates numerous programs for individuals facing economic challenges and food insecurity. Gobin Memorial also offers rehearsal space for DePauw University choral groups, hosts a thirteen-week summer music festival, an annual lecture series, and is the meeting place for the local branch of the NAACP.

A National Fund grant of $500,000 with equal matching funds raised by the congregation will allow Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church to repoint its brick and limestone exterior to prevent water intrusion.

Photo by Kenneth Harris