Prairie Street Mennonite Church

John F. Funk bought a plot of land for the church building just outside the city limit to allay concerns about how the Mennonite faith would hold up in an urban context.

[4] In 1931, the Prairie Street Mennonite Church building was burned in a fire so severely that it needed to be rebuilt.

Nellie Mann Witmer, Minnie Graber, and Juanita Mann Wittrig, all Prairie Street members, served as president of the Indiana-Michigan Women's Missionary and Service Commission and Graber also served as the president of the church-wide WMSC from 1958-1969.

Located in a neighborhood equal parts African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic, Prairie Street initiated programs designed to reach out to the community, including Vacation Bible School (with Hively Avenue Mennonite), neighborhood block parties, and Jubilee House, a unit of Mennonite Voluntary Service.

[7] In 2008, MVSers at Jubilee House appeared dressed as superheroes to promote awareness of male-pattern violence.

A group photograph of children attending sunday school at Prairie Street Mennonite Church in 1905.
Members of Prairie Street Mennonite Church illustrating plain Mennonite clothing (back row, right: Elsie (Kolb) Bender, Harold S. Bender 's mother).