Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church

Armstrong Chapel United Methodist Church is a historic church in the city of Indian Hill, Ohio, United States. Built in 1831, it is a small rectangular building with a prominent front tower. It was designated a historic site in 1975.Nathanial and Hannah Armstrong, formerly residents of Virginia, arrived in southwestern Ohio in 1800; they soon built a log cabin and gristmill on their land and began farming. By this time, occasional circuit-riding ministers of the Methodist Church were visiting the area, but the settlers worshipped in each homes because there were no church buildings nearby. As this situation continued for decades, in 1830 Armstrong donated one of the best pieces of his land for the construction of a church and cemetery.The church was erected in the summer of 1831 under the leadership of Samuel Earhart; its walls, built of brick, were constructed from locally made bricks whose clay originated on Earhart's property. The adjacent cemetery had already been founded; its first burial was Hannah Armstrong, who had died four years before the church's completion in the fall of 1831. Nathanial Armstrong provided that the church be made available for the use of whichever denomination had the greatest number of members in the vicinity. Both at that time and at all times since, the church has been used by Methodists. Relatively few changes have been made to the building since its construction; a tower was added in 1890, but only minor repairs have been carried out otherwise. Although the foundation was built of fieldstones and held together by soil rather than mortar, it has moved only slightly; a restoration performed in the 1970s demonstrated that the building had settled just in 140 years.