Art Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Way out in Art, Mason County, there's a Methodist church with a story that starts back in 1856, when a man named Reverend C. A.

Grote organized the congregation. He was the first minister to preach there, and you get the sense he was the kind of man who showed up before the building did, because the building didn't come until 1858. That first structure went up, served its purpose, and then in 1875 the congregation built again, this time in stone.

When you're putting down roots in the Texas Hill Country, stone says something. It says we are not going anywhere. Then in 1890 the present structure went up, on land donated by Ernst Jordan, Sr., who wasn't just a neighbor being neighborable.

He was a charter member. This was his church too. Now here's something worth pausing on.

From the very beginning, all the way through 1927, every service, every prayer, every hymn in that building was held in the German language. Every word of worship, for decade after decade, spoken in German. Then 1939 brought a change of a different kind.

The two Methodist churches in Art united, came together as one. And when they did, the frame building was moved right beside the rock building and equipped for Sunday School classes. Two buildings, two congregations, one church.

That old stone structure had already outlasted just about everything, and it wasn't done yet.

What the marker says

Organized 1856 by the Rev. C. A. Grote, first minister to preach here. First building was erected in 1858; second one, of stone, in 1875. The present structure was built 1890 on land donated by Ernst Jordan, Sr., charter member. Until 1927, all worship was held in the German language. The two Methodist churches in Art united in 1939. At that time frame building was moved beside this rock building and equipped for Sunday School classes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968