The first council in Indiana
The lettering carved over the front doors reads Knights of Columbus, and above it, McGowan Hall. Both names belong there. This page explains why.
Who the Knights are
The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization founded in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882 by a parish priest, Father Michael J. McGivney. It began as a mutual benefit society for working men, a way of making sure that when a labourer died his widow and children were not left destitute. Charity, unity and fraternity were the founding principles and remain the stated ones.
Local groups are called councils and are numbered in the order they were chartered. Mater Dei Council 437 was the first council established in the state of Indiana, and it has been serving Indianapolis for more than a hundred and twenty five years. The council's own archive of membership records runs back to 1899.
How the council came to own this corner
By 1919 Council 437 had outgrown whatever rooms it had been meeting in. Membership was over a thousand. That year it bought the mansion at 1305 North Delaware Street from the family of Hugh J. McGowan, the interurban railway magnate, who had been a member himself.
The house became the clubhouse. In 1920 the council started planning an addition, and in 1922 McGowan Hall opened behind the mansion with an auditorium seating a thousand, along with locker rooms, cloak rooms, lounges and cigar parlors. By then membership had roughly doubled to two thousand. It was, at the time, one of the finest fraternal clubhouses in the city.
The property is deeded to The Home Association of the Knights of Columbus of Indianapolis, and the hall trades as McGowan Hall.
Members worth knowing about
Council 437 has counted among its members Cardinal Joseph Ritter, who was born in New Albany and went on to be Archbishop of St. Louis, where he desegregated the archdiocese's schools in 1947, ahead of the state; Father Thomas Scecina, an army chaplain who died in 1944 when the Japanese transport ship carrying him and other prisoners of war was sunk, and for whom an Indianapolis high school is named; and Bishop Alphonse Smith of Nashville.
When the hall was dedicated in September 1923 the ceremony was led by Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Chartrand, with the Archdiocese Cathedral Choir singing.
Renting the hall, and the council's name
McGowan Hall is open to everyone. You do not need to be Catholic, or a member of anything, to hold your wedding or your company's holiday party here, and the hall is used by people of every background and belief.
One practical note for anyone renting: your rental agreement lets you use the McGowan Hall name and address freely in your invitations, signage and directions. It does not extend to the Knights of Columbus name, emblem or trademarks, which stay with the order. In plain terms, tell your guests they are coming to McGowan Hall.
What the council does now
Council 437 still meets in the building and still does what councils do: charitable fundraising, support for the parish and the archdiocese, and looking after the hall. The events side of the building helps pay for the upkeep of a hundred year old structure, which is a large part of why the rooms are rented out at all.
To find out about the council itself rather than the venue, look up Mater Dei Council 437 directly. For anything to do with renting a room, call us on (463) 842-1265.
Book the hall for whatever you are planning
A century of weddings, dances, fundraisers and meetings, and the calendar is still open.