Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church (Greencastle, Putnam County, Ind.) records

Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church has a number of antecedents. In 1822, William Cravens started a Society, meeting in Putnam County cabins. A log church was built in Greencastle in 1826, and after a small brick church was erected, it became a station in 1837. In 1847, Roberts Chapel was built and named for Indiana's first bishop, Robert R. Roberts.

Another Methodist group built Simpson Chapel in 1850, naming it after Matthew Simpson, first president of Indiana Asbury (now DePauw University) and later a bishop. In 1872, this congregation merged with Roberts Chapel. In 1876, yet another Methodist congregation built Locust Street Church.

College Avenue Church was built in 1879 when Roberts Chapel became too small, and then in the 1924 this church merged with the Locust Street Church. Now that the Methodists were united in Greencastle, they built the Greencastle Methodist Episcopal Church which was completed in 1929. The name was changed to Gobin Memorial in 1933 in memory of former DePauw professor and administrator Dr. Hillary A. Gobin.

Following the Conference of 1939, when the Methodist Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Protestant Church were united, Gobin became the Gobin Memorial Methodist Church. Over the years Gobin Memorial has been the center of community and campus religious life. Its influence has extended throughout Methodism.