Christian Spiritualist Temple

The story

You are looking at an 1857 Romanesque Revival stone church on 6th Street that owes its modern incarnation to financial advice delivered from beyond the grave. Local investor Ebenezer Barcus held a massive block of railroad stock and turned to spiritualist medium Eva Fay for guidance. Fay instructed him to hold out for a higher offer, prompting Barcus to promise that if her mediumship made him a fortune, he would buy the spiritualists a permanent sanctuary. The stock price soared, Barcus sold for a windfall, and in 1902 he bought the former Westminster Presbyterian sanctuary at 77 S. 6th Street for the congregation.

More than a century later, the sanctuary remains active, operating as an independent temple where 19th-century Spiritualist doctrine meets Christian tradition. The building—added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001—retains its heavy stone exterior, stained glass, and original wooden pews, but the pulpit is used for spontaneous, live mediumship. The church operates under the belief that human identity continues past death and that direct communication with spirits is a verifiable fact.