The chapel erected in Middletown in 1801 by the Rev. Jacob Baulus was named in his honor. No known description of this building has been found, however, since it was completely destroyed by fire in 1830 it can be assumed to have been a wooden structure. In the early 1800's the members of the Methodist congregation shared the Baulus Chapel with members of the United Brethren congregation. This structure may have been located in the area known as North Commons (now Green Street) on the grounds that are now the Lutheran cemetery.

West Green Street, "The Marten Box" (1831-1883)

Apparently the early Baulus Chapel burned down sometime around 1830 and a new brick "union chapel" known as the "Marten Box" was erected. It may have been given this name because the structure was thought to resemble a birdhouse. Both congregations continued to share the use of this building. The United Brethren conducted services in German and the Methodist used English although hopefully not at the same time. Early maps of Middletown clearly show that the Marten Box church was situated on the highest land in the middle of the current Lutheran cemetery. The Pennsylvania Conference recorded that the Marten Box was located on the commons adjacent to the Methodist cemetery.

The cemetery on Green Street, that is now known as the Lutheran cemetery, was originally the burying grounds for the Methodist and United Brethren congregations. Mr. George Rhoderick in his history of Middletown reported "The old Academy Building and the United Brethren Church structures, both of them of great antiquity, stood side by side on a site which is now encompassed by the grounds of the Lutheran Cemetery, where the alleyway leading to them extended from West Main Street back to the commons, and where the Green Street station of the Hagerstown and Frederick Electric Railway was later located." Through the first half of the nineteenth century the Methodist and United Brethren continued to share the "Marten Box." However, the population of the valley continued to grow. The 1850 Federal census for the Middletown Election District revealed that a total of 3,596 peopled lived in the district. This population was divided among 630 families, who lived in 614 separate homes, of which about a third were designated as farms. As the size of both congregations continued to grow it became obvious that larger facilities were needed. In 1845 the trustees of the United Brethren congregation, the Rev. Jacob Ruebash, Jacob Young, Enos Doub, and Jonathan Perry, purchased the "interests of the Methodist" in the Marten Box Chapel.