Roberts Chapel (Atlanta, Indiana)
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Roberts Chapel
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Front and western side of the church
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| Location | 3102 E. 276th St., southwest of Atlanta, Jackson Township, Hamilton County, Indiana |
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| Coordinates | 40°11′26″N 86°6′50″W / 40.19056°N 86.11389°WCoordinates: 40°11′26″N 86°6′50″W / 40.19056°N 86.11389°W |
| Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| Built | 1847 |
| Architect | Peter Walden; Alf Robbins |
| Architectural style | gable front |
| NRHP Reference # | 96001009 |
| Added to NRHP | September 25, 1996 |
Roberts Chapel, is a non-denominational church that was originally built in 1847 at Roberts Settlement, one of Indiana's early black pioneer communities. The rural church, whose main building dates from 1858, is located near the present-day town of Atlanta in rural Jackson Township, Hamilton County, Indiana. The chapel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Roberts Chapel originated as a Methodist congregation named Mount Pleasant, which was established in 1838 at Roberts Settlement in rural northwestern Jackson Township, Hamilton County, Indiana. The rural farming community was named in reference to the large contingent of residents who had the surname of Roberts. Most of its settlers were free blacks and mixed-race people who migrated from Beech Settlement in Ripley Township, Rush County, Indiana. The majority of these early pioneers had migrated to Indiana from eastern North Carolina and Virginia due to more oppressive government acts against free blacks following Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831. Some of them initially settled in Ohio, before continuing west. A small number of free blacks who resided in Beech Settlement had come with Quaker families from the Old South. Other early settlers were ex-slaves.
The settlement's Methodist congregation built a log meetinghouse in 1847 on land donated by Elias and Mariah Roberts. Located in the center of the Roberts neighborhood, the meetinghouse served as the center of the community's educational, social, and religious life. After briefly aligning with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the congregation joined the Weslayan Methodist Connection in the late 1840s. The main portion of the present chapel was constructed in 1858.
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