during his year in indiana, at a time when the ku klux klan reached an all-time record half a million members in the state, plato found support from wealthy business owners john schaumleffel and j. woodrow wilson. plato also had a partnership for about ten years with jasper burden, a black building contractor in marion. plato's early projects in marion include the second baptist church, completed in 1905; the classical revival-style first baptist church, commissioned in 1913; and the platonian apartments, built in 1910.