Edna Martin Christian Center

Faith-based ministry

The Edna Martin Christian Center began through the sole efforts of Edna Mae Barnes Martin, a 43-year-old homemaker and mother. After the death of her daughter Doris in 1939, Martin found solace in her Christian faith, which inspired her to open a day care center to help the Martindale neighborhood. Convinced that God “had called her out” to improve the living conditions of the children in a neighborhood that had a high rate of juvenile delinquency, she took $14 of her own money, rented a one-room apartment without indoor plumbing at 1475 Roosevelt Avenue, and opened the day care in 1941.

Martin worked in the day care by herself for five years, before the All Baptist Fellowship of Indianapolis began to support her efforts in 1946. The day care was relocated to a three-room house on Martindale Avenue (now Dr. Andrew J. Brown Avenue) and was officially named East Side Christian Center. Because the new location sat across the street from John Hope School No. 26 (IPS 26), the Center began an after-school program to serve the nearby students. By the 1950s, delinquency at IPS 26 had dropped dramatically even as it grew in other parts of the city. Martin’s peers gave her much of the credit for the reduction in delinquency at the school.

Four young adults work two to a table. They are all working with fabric. An older woman is standing next to one of the girls and showing her something.

A sewing class at the East Side Christian Center, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

A group of young children sit in metal folding chairs. The are all facing the front of the room. A woman stands in the back of the room.

An afternoon group of six- and seven-year-olds at the East Side Christian Center, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

A group of boys crowd around a table that is strewn with several open books. The wall in the background is filled with shelves of books.

East Side Christian Center Library Club, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

A group of girls are standing around an island in the middle of a kitchen. The girls are all working on mixing batter in metal bowls.

A group learning to cook at the East Side Christian Center, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

A group of boys sit together around a table in the middle of a room. Two adult men sit at the end of the table.

Black Studies Club meeting at the East Side Christian Center, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

A sewing class at the East Side Christian Center, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

An afternoon group of six- and seven-year-olds at the East Side Christian Center, ca. 1970s Credit: Indiana University Indianapolis View Source

The Center expanded, added programs, and relocated five times, until 1964 when it constructed its own building at 1970 Caroline Avenue. After Martin’s death in 1974, the board unanimously voted to rename the East Side Christian Center as the Edna Martin Christian Center. Since then, the Center’s leadership has included Reverend Frank Alexander (1974–1979), Reverend Richard K. Padrick (1980–1988), Reverend Lawrence Lindley (1989–2008), Tysha Hardy-Sellers (2008–2019), and Barato Britt (2020–).

During Tysha Hardy-Sellers’ time as chief executive officer, the Center relocated, moving to the 37 Place Community Center in 2015, and the Edna Martin Childcare Ministry became a Level 3 FSSA Paths-to-Quality certified day care. That same year, the Center made plans to build a Leadership and Legacy Center where students would come before and after school and during the summers. The expansion was slated for 13 acres of land along Ralston Avenue that the Environmental Protection Agency found contaminated with lead and petroleum (the EPA found a total of 400 acres contaminated in Martindale-Brightwood). The site clean–up required millions of dollars in EPA Superfunds. After that project was successfully completed in 2016, the Edna Martin Christian Center began using the site for youth programs while also embarking on a capital campaign to expand the facility and open the Leadership and Legacy Campus. The new 25,000-square-foot building opened in 2021.

The Edna Martin Christian Center has become an anchor for the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood by providing essential programs including day care and preschool, tutoring, summer camps, before- and after-school care, a food pantry, senior assistance, health and social support, and finance and entrepreneurship education.

Further Reading