Grants Help to Preserve Nine Historic African American Sites Across Indiana

Roberts Chapel Homecoming and Burial Association, Inc. in Atlanta will receive $9,250 to repair soffits, the foundation, and two damaged pews at the 1858 church, as well as aid conservation of three gravestones in the adjacent cemetery.

This funding comes from two funds established by the late Eli Lilly chemist and preservation champion Standiford “Stan” Cox.

Grants totaling more than $150,000 are being distributed from the Standiford H. Cox Fund and the Dovie Stewart Cox & Chester A. Cox Sr. Memorial Fund to nine different sites across the state.

These sites significant to Indiana’s African American history are receiving restoration and rehabilitation assistance as part of these funds.

Stan Cox, who passed away in 2019, joined Eli Lilly and Co. in 1957 as its first Black chemist. He established the two funds with Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) to support the restoration, preservation, operation, and ongoing maintenance of African American historic sites in Indiana.

The remaining organizations receiving grants are listed below, along with a brief description of how the funds will be used:

• African American Historical Society and Museum, Fort Wayne: $7,500 to install a more energy efficient heating system in the c.1909 duplex that houses the museum.
• Allen Chapel AME Church, Indianapolis: $17,500 to repoint masonry on the north façade of the 1865 church, restoring sections along the cornice and parapet.
• Friends of Division Street School, Inc., New Albany: $7,500 for structural repairs to the back steps and accessible ramp into the school, built in 1884 for Black students in the city’s east end.
• Indiana Landmarks: $20,000 to aid rehabilitation of houses on Elmer Street constructed in the 1950s in South Bend by the Better Homes of South Bend, an African American building co-operative formed in 1950 by workers from the nearby Studebaker complex.
• Lyles Station Historic Preservation Corporation, Inc., Gibson County: $40,000 to repair clapboard siding and windows, rebuild the porch, and repaint the c.1900 house built for Joseph Lucas, a principal at Lyles Station.
• St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, Gary: $14,500 to install a high-efficiency furnace in the 1959 church, designed by Modernist architect Edward Dart.
• Stewart Lawn Cemetery, Inc., Vigo County: $14,500 to replace the fence surrounding Stewart Lawn Cemetery and resurface the road traversing the property. The cemetery has a high percentage of African American burial sites; most are descendants of the nearby Lost Creek Settlement.
• Turner Chapel AME Church, Fort Wayne: $20,000 to replace the roof on the 1927 Gothic Revival-style church.

“Partnering with Indiana Landmarks allows us to honor Stan’s legacy by caring for sites that are important to our state’s Black history,” said Brian Payne, president & CEO at CICF.

“These grants, which we make in conjunction with Central Indiana Community Foundation, continue the visionary work of Stan Cox to protect Indiana’s Black heritage,” said Mark Dollase, vice president of preservation services at Indiana Landmarks.

The Standiford H. Cox Fund supports the restoration, preservation, operation, and ongoing maintenance of African American historic sites in Indiana. The Dovie Stewart Cox & Chester A. Cox Sr. Memorial Fund, which Cox created to honor his parents, provides support for Lost Creek Community Grove at the Lost Creek Settlement near Terre Haute, one of the state’s earliest settlements of free people of color. Indiana Landmarks’ African American Landmarks Committee serves as a preservation advisor to both funds, recommending projects.

Applications for the next round of grants will be due April 1, 2023. Those looking to suggest a property that might qualify for grants from the funds should contact Indiana Landmarks at coxfunds@indianalandmarks.org.

Born in Brazil, Ind., Cox was an Indiana University graduate who worked for 32 years for Eli Lilly and Co., beginning as a chemist and holding a variety of positions during his career. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious academic society, he also earned a master’s degree from Butler University. An advocate for academic biochemical research, he endowed the Standiford H. Cox Professorship in Biochemistry at Indiana University in Bloomington.