Friday, October 10, 2008 8:36 PM CDT
Charleston couple converts historic church into bed and breakfast
By Bonnie Clark, Features Writer
bclark@jg-tc.com
From church to bed and breakfast, the renovated United Brethren Church, now McGrady Inn, on the corner of Sixth Street and Harrison Avenue in Charleston still offers sanctuary.
Purchased by David McGrady in 2005, the inn took a little more than three years to complete. It opened for business two weeks ago on Eastern Illinois University’s Parents Weekend.
The magnitude of the project was probably the biggest challenge McGrady faced when he decided to purchase and remodel the former church.
“I don’t know that there was any one problem that stands out,” he said of the project. “There were some design challenges, but mostly, it was just so big.”
The church, originally the United Brethren in Christ Church, was built in 1920-1921.
In 1968, McGrady said, after the merger of the Methodist and United Brethren conferences, the church became the Otterbein Methodist Church.
Between 1990 and 1995, services were held there by the New Life Apostolic Church, McGrady said. After that the building had a few other uses, including serving as a youth center for a short time. It sat empty for about three years.
For McGrady, a finance teacher at EIU, and his wife, Cindy, crossing the finish line was a matter of perseverance, although there was no deadline to complete the project.
“In some ways that’s bad,” McGrady said, “but on the other hand, you don’t rush through stuff and then look back and say, ‘I wish I had done this differently.’
“We’re both into endurance races, so we’re both used to the idea of a step at a time,” he said. “Keep making progress and eventually you’ll get done. And that’s what we did.”
What he actually wanted to do with the finished building changed from week to week, he said, noting that he didn’t have a completed plan until well into the project.
The finished floor plan leaves the open sanctuary in the center of the building, surrounded by second-floor balconies.
Four bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, are on the south side, both on the sanctuary level and balcony level.
A two-story fifth bedroom, the choir loft room, occupies both floors. A sitting room with a sleeper couch on the first floor and a bedroom on the balcony level allows accommodation for four.
The room also has a private bath with stained-glass windows, a 1922 Kohler clawfoot tub, and conveniently, if somewhat incongruently, a shower with body jets. The second floor of the choir loft room can be reached by a ladder or by the stairway.
McGrady’s large, open office overlooks the sanctuary from the west balcony.
Three large windows on the north provide a view from the first and second floors toward the courthouse square.
McGrady credits the success of the project to Dan Miller of Humboldt, who completed the work.
“I had some ideas for this place, but Dan’s the one who executed everything. It would have taken me 20 years to figure out how to do some of the things he’s done here.”
McGrady said they were able to reuse most of the original materials from the church, although often it took some time to figure out the best use for everything.
“It’s becoming more and more common to try and reuse as much as you can and try and preserve the heritage as much as you can.
“The maple floor was in pretty good shape,” he said. “Basically we took every piece up, sanded it by hand, and took off all the carpet glue.”
In removing the floor, McGrady and Miller found many of the pieces had “Fuller Brothers, Charleston” stamped on the bottom.
While at the library, McGrady said he discovered that Fuller Brothers Lumber and Coal Yard was a predecessor of the current Charleston Lumber Company on Sixth Street.
“The subfloor is fir and we used it for paneling and the wainscoting.”
Other pieces of the old floor were used in the surround for the free-standing fireplace on the sanctuary floor, the kitchen countertop and the window sills.
“I think Dan enjoys working on older buildings,” McGrady said. “He was a little skeptical sometimes, like when I wanted to use the subfloor for paneling. I think he originally thought, ‘This is going to look horrible; it’s all dented up. What’s the point?’
“Now, he’ll say, ‘I dropped my hammer; I added a little more character to your floor today.’”
McGrady also has reused 28 of the 52 stained-glass windows that were in the building.
There is also a stained glass square, approximately 9-foot by 9-foot, in the ceiling of the sanctuary that McGrady fell for — and almost through — the first time he saw it.
“I was up in the attic just to look around,” he said, “and there was a huge glass pyramid structure. It had real thick glass with chicken wire in it.
“I started to step out into the pyramid to see what it was and I happened to notice stained glass under some insulation. I thought it was a strange place to store stained glass, so I pulled up some of the insulation and then I saw what it was.”
The McGradys were married two years ago in the church-turned-inn, although it was still “way under construction,” Cindy McGrady said.
“But it was done enough. The subfloor was down. The bedrooms weren’t done, but we just locked those doors and hoped guests didn’t try to peek,” she said.
The couple found the role of inkeepers to their liking and said they enjoyed their first guests immensely.
Since neither one likes to cook, they serve a continental breakfast including muffins and strawberry bread from a local restaurant.
“Our big obstacle the day we opened was figuring out the coffee maker,” Mrs. McGrady said, “because we’re not even coffee drinkers.”
McGrady said it was nice to have people drive by when they were working and tell them the building looked nice.
“I didn’t even know who they were, but it was nice to be encouraged. It was like being in a race. It keeps you going, keeps you excited about what you’re doing.”
Now that the construction work is done, he says he enjoys talking to people who attended church in the building and those who were married there.
“I enjoy finding out more and more about it,” he said. “And, it’s just neat to be able to walk around on 90-year-old floors and see all these original stained-glass windows, and walk by the cornerstone every day. I enjoy that part of it.”
Contact Bonnie Clark at bclark@jg-tc.com or 348-5727.
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AnnieC wrote on Oct 11, 2008 5:09 PM:
to not only fit in with the neighborhood, but improve it, while still functioning as B&Bs. We are very grateful that the McGradys saved that wonderful building in an extraordinary way. Beautiful job and thank you! Annie Cross "