The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
Schoolhouse meetings from 1840; organized 1843; reorganized 9 December 1853; Gothic church at Lincoln Way West and Spring dedicated 23 February 1896; moved to 2511 E. Third Street, first service 19 December 1971
The founding: The Christian Church in Mishawaka met first in a schoolhouse in Pleasant Valley, northeast of town, in 1840, on De Kever's account, and moved to another school building on East Second Street before building on West Second Street in 1850. The congregation's own record, as the genealogical timeline carries it, dates the organization to 1843; a reorganization on 9 December 1853 gathered thirty-six members in a bought Baptist building on Lincoln Way West. Both the 1840 meetings and the 1843 organization stand, each in its source. The congregation's first full-time pastor, from 20 September 1867, was Ira Chase — afterward the twenty-first governor of Indiana.
The building line: In 1895 the congregation built at the southwest corner of Spring Street and West Second — Lincoln Way West — a Gothic church of brick veneer and sandstone trim with a fifty-foot steeple, dedicated on 23 February 1896. It remained there seventy-five years, until the move east: the first service in the present church at 2511 East Third Street was held on 19 December 1971. The 1896 church was not demolished; Vogue Beauty College has occupied it since the early 1970s, and the old Gothic facade stands on Lincoln Way West today under its white paint, on local published accounts. The congregation stands active at East Third Street, worshipping Sundays at 10:30 a.m., its own site (christchangeslives.org) current in November 2026.
Sources:
- Peter J. De Kever, Mishawaka: A History (the 1840 meetings; the 1895 church; the 1971 move; the beauty college).
- Ed Chamberlin, Mishawaka church-history timeline, South Bend Area Genealogical Society, 2016 (organization, reorganization, Chase, dedication, first service at Third Street).
- First Christian Church's own site, current November 2026.