The Land Beneath Us: A Few More Details
By Ed Busch
I hope you found my last blog post interesting! This week, I’m continuing the story of the land beneath our church building. As I mentioned before, the earliest land record I located shows that our property was once part of the Battenfield Farm, owned by William D. and Emma A. Battenfield.
William was born in 1842 in Ohio, and his wife, Emma (Haire), was born in 1856 in Ingham County, Michigan. The two married in 1874 in Holt, Michigan. William served in the Civil War with the 68th Ohio Infantry Regiment. After the war, he moved to Michigan, purchasing and clearing the land that would become the Battenfield Farm. He passed away in 1916, and Emma lived in the area until her death in 1943.
William D. Battenfield, 1860s.
Emma Battenfield near Cedar Street, circa 1917.
By 1951, the Battenfield Farm began to be divided for development. The first subdivision, Battenfield No. 1, consisted of 14 lots. Today, maps show a subdivision north of Jolly Road named Battenfield and another to the south called East Battenfield.
As I mentioned in the last blog post, a 1952 Lansing State Journal article reported that the Lansing Christian School acquired 17 acres of what was once the 100-acre Battenfield Farm. Established in 1951, the school opened in 1952 and expanded over the years, adding new buildings and classrooms.
Construction on the original school building began in the spring of 1953, with plans for a seven-room school at an estimated cost of $100,000. Volunteers—rather than contractors—completed the work, eventually finishing eight classrooms and an auditorium. The buildings, made of cinder block, featured a tunnel beneath the structure that supplied hot water heat via two gas-fired boilers. Amazingly, this tunnel still exists today! Construction of this section continued until 1958, with a gymnasium added in 1968 and a library and east wing built in 1976.
Entrance to “the Tunnel”.
The ladder for entering “the Tunnel”.
Steve Pueppke is looking at the old hot air duct in “The Tunnel.”
The current construction at our church, focused on the west wing, is the oldest part of our building. We look forward to its completion!
Help Us Preserve Our History
Do you have insights or corrections about our history? Or photos from when we first moved into our South Pennsylvania building? Many members volunteered to help build and renovate our space over the years—I’d love to hear your stories! Feel free to reach out at uucgl.archives@gmail.com.
In my next post, I’ll explore our church’s experience in conducting the Uni-Mass. Does anyone still have their UU Lansing church newsletter emails from 2012? I seem to have an incomplete set of emails for the archives.
Sources
Ancestry.com, William and Emma Battenfield photos
Lansing State Journal, September 1, 1916
Lansing State Journal, February 18, 1943
Lansing State Journal, August 26, 1951
Lansing State Journal, April 18, 1953
Lansing State Journal, August 23, 1953
About the Author
Hi, I’m Ed Busch, the writer behind these blog posts exploring the history of UU Lansing. After retiring in 2023 from a 15-year career as an Electronic Records Archivist at Michigan State University’s Archives & Historical Collections, I’m thrilled to dedicate my time to sharing our church’s rich history.
I hold a Master’s in Library and Information Science, specializing in archival administration, and my academic background also includes a degree in Fisheries with coursework in Computer Science. Before shifting to archives, I worked in diverse fields, including fisheries, aerospace, and IT.
My wife, Leigh White, and I have been part of the UU Lansing community since the early 2000s and became members in 2006. I’ve been actively involved with the church archives since 2007, and both of our daughters grew up in UU Lansing’s Religious Education (RE) program.
I look forward to connecting with you through these blog posts as we uncover the stories that have shaped UU Lansing over the years!