Historic Church Sites in Rural Champaign County

*Shiloh United Methodist Church north of Mahomet*

Between 2023-2025, I set out to find every one of the more than 100 church sites shown on rural township plats in the Combined 1893, 1913, and 1929 Atlases of Champaign County. My goal? To see what’s there now, learn what I could about the existing structures and their past, and discover the stories of those that have been lost to time.

These atlases document land ownership and show the locations of early roads, rail lines, schools, churches, and other notable features. Rural churches are designated by a tiny drawing of a building with a steeple and cross and the word Church in italic text. Village maps often also include a denominational identifier. Methodist, Baptist, Christian, and Catholic churches abound, along with assorted Presbyterian, United Brethren, Lutheran, and Nazarene congregations.

*Newcomb Twp. (1913), Shiloh Methodist* *Church*

*Village of Sidney (1929), Christian and Nazarene Churches*

My interest was primarily in the buildings themselves, and the transitions congregations had made from their earliest to subsequent structures. Of the 123 places I visited, I found existing churches on less than half of the sites (original buildings at only six). That left a lot of research to do to uncover the stories of long-lost places of worship. Much of this work was done at the Champaign County Historical Archives, but I also had assistance from the archives of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference (United Methodist Church), Peoria Diocese (Catholic Church), Homer Historical Society, Rantoul Historical Society, and the history keepers of many individual congregations. In May 2025 I presented an overview of the project at the Champaign County History Museum’s monthly “History Talk” (view the presentation).

More recently, I’ve created a series of ten driving tours that can be used to find every one of the historic church sites I visited. The tours are organized by townships, beginning in the northwestern part of the county then continuing south along the western side, east across the southern townships, up through the townships east and north of Urbana, then finishing in Rantoul.

Links to the ten driving tours are presented here along with a selection of photos of existing historic churches and memorials to former church sites I discovered throughout the county (click on the headings to access each tour).