Azle Christian Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the voice passing it along. Now, some congregations start with a grand building, stained glass already cut, pews already varnished. This one started the way a lot of good things in Texas started: outside, under the sky, on somebody's donated land.

The land belonged to Dr. Azle Stewart, the very man the town was named for, and back in the 1880s, folks were gathering there for worship services before there was much of anything else to gather around. By 1890, the congregation got itself organized; made it official.

But organized didn't mean they had walls yet. No sir. For the next three years, that fellowship met under a brush arbor.

Now if you've never sat under a brush arbor in a Texas summer, well, let's just say you earn your faith a little differently out in the open air. Then came 1893, and with it the first real sanctuary: walls, a roof, the whole promise of permanence. The congregation kept growing, kept building.

Around 1904, the young people formed the Christian Endeavor, the church's earliest youth organization, and that group did something that ripples out well beyond any Sunday service. They established the first public library for Azle: set it up right there in the home of Valera Huster. Think about that.

A youth group, a willing neighbor, and suddenly a whole town has a place to reach for knowledge. Additions came to that original structure over the years, and in 1974 a brand new sanctuary rose to meet the congregation where it stood. From a brush arbor in the 1880s to a new sanctuary in 1974, that's not just a building history.

That's a town growing up around its own better instincts.

What the marker says

This congregation grew from worship services conducted here in the 1880s on land donated by Dr. Azle Stewart, for whom the town was named. Organized in 1890, the Fellowship met under a brush arbor until 1893, when the first sanctuary was completed. The earliest youth organization for the church was the Christian Endeavor, started about 1904. Members of that group established the first Public Library for Azle in the home of Valera Huster. Additions were later made to the original structure and a new sanctuary was built in 1974. (1980)