Calvin Community Chapel
Contributed by: Esther Stewart

Larger image? Just click on the photo. Some of the ancestors in the photos above are:
Rosanna Wilson and (stone masons) Joseph Craddolph & James H. Wilson

The Calvin Community Chapel was organized April 3, 1928, at the Town Hall of Calvin Center. Fifteen dollars was collected for the purpose of securing a Charter from Lansing. At a later date sixty members took their membership from the Calvin A.M.E. churches - Mt. Zion and Bethel - and this undenominational church was started. There were nearly one-hundred charter members.
   The first religious services were held May 13, 1928, at the Primrose Gleaner Hall, by Rev. Allen Peavy of Dowagiac, Michigan, who became the first pastor. Total receipts for the first Sunday were $27.57.
   In May of 1929, a committee was formed and a parcel of land was secured for the building site of the permanent chapel. The land was 3.6 acres and was purchased at a cost of $360. The desire of the membership, with God being their leader, was to make a solid foundation for future generations.

On June 2, 1930, many of the men worked on the basement of the church and it was completed in only three days. All work was of course volunteer work. Associate members of the church took an active part and donated weeks of work. All of the beautiful windows and door frames and the arches for the cluster glass windows were made by members.

In March of 1930 stones were hauled to the building site. The ladies of the church and children gathered stones from a pit nearby in the Williamsville area. Members and friends also gathered stones from their fields. Some special stones treasured by members of the community were brought to the masons and placed in prominent places in the front of the building. On the days when stones were picked up and hauled to the building site, a tasty dinner was prepared by the ladies. The ladies also painted some of the inside of the church and worked at whatever they could to help in the construction of the building.

The stone masons, with the labor and advice of many of the members, completed the stone work of the church by November 1, 1930. The expertise of the members of the chapel, in the field of carpentry, masonry, plastering, decorating, plumbing, and electrical work, reduced the cost of the construction of the building. The labor cost was minimal.

The following poem, which expressed the feelings of the members, was used at the close of a 1932 meeting:

Here's a song of Praise to the God above,
Who maketh all things possible.
Here's a song of Praise to the ones,
Who helped and labored here so faithful.
Here's a song of Praise for a beautiful church,
Where we worship our Master together as one;
For the Dear God who leadeth us will guide us,
Till we have finished this work we've begun

Sources: Contributed by Esther P. Stewart quotes her source as The Calvin Community Chapel write up was extracted from a booklet entitled: "The fiftieth Anniversary of the Calvin Community Chapel 1828-1978

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