Keeping a hundred year old hall standing

The Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) charity. It exists to preserve, restore and improve the building at 1305 North Delaware Street, and to keep it useful to the neighborhood around it.

What the Foundation does

Preservation and restoration. Raising money for the fabric of the hall and its grounds. A 1922 building with an original maple floor and twenty two foot ceilings does not maintain itself.
Civic and cultural programming. Supporting the family friendly events that bring people into the building, from theatre to jazz nights to the children's Christmas party.
Education. Building tours and programmes for adults and young people about the hall's history and the Old Northside around it.
The archive. Cataloguing, scanning and displaying club artifacts and documents going back to 1899. Membership records, photographs, and papers that would otherwise sit in boxes.
A place to gather. Keeping the hall available as a social space for people of good will, which is roughly how the original charter put it in the first place.

Archival newspaper clippings about Hugh J. McGowan and the Knights of Columbus, including obituary notices and photographs — Part of the archive: newspaper clippings covering Hugh J. McGowan, the council and the hall. Digitising material like this is one of the things donations pay for.

How to donate

One hundred percent of donations go to the work described above, and donations are tax deductible.

Checks should be made out to McGowan Hall Foundation, Inc. and sent to:

McGowan Hall Foundation
1305 N. Delaware St.
Indianapolis, IN 46202

For donor opportunities, sponsorship or anything else to do with giving, contact director@mcgowanhall.org. Thank you for considering it.

A note on who is who

Two separate organisations share this address, and it is worth being clear about which is which.

McGowan Hall Foundation, Inc. is the 501(c)(3) charity described on this page. Donations go to it and are tax deductible.

Knights of Columbus Home Association of Indianapolis, trading as McGowan Hall, is the not for profit corporation that owns the building and rents out the rooms. Renting a room from us is a commercial transaction and is not a charitable donation, so it is not tax deductible.

If you want to support the hall and also need a room, those are two separate things, and we would be glad of either.

Two ways to help

Give, or book the room

Donations pay for restoration and the archive. Rentals pay for the day to day of keeping a 1922 building open. Both matter.

Email the Foundation Look at the rooms

The background

What your donation is looking after

The building's storyA hundred years on Delaware StreetThe chateau, the railway man, and the hall built behind the house in 1922.Who is behind itMater Dei Council 437Indiana's first Knights of Columbus council, and the hall's owners since 1919.Another way to helpBook an event hereRentals are what keep a hundred year old building standing week to week.