Cedar Street United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1887, the city of Tyler, Texas was growing — spreading north, pushing past its old familiar edges into new suburban neighborhoods. And when a town grows, so does its need for community.

So somebody gathered folks together for a Sunday School, right there in those neighborhoods north of town. The idea was simple enough: the central Methodist Church — the one that would eventually be known as Marvin United Methodist Church — was fine if you lived close by. But for the people settling out in those newer parts of town, well, they needed something closer to home.

And so those Sunday School classes started meeting right where folks were — in their homes. Living rooms, parlors, wherever there was room to pull up a chair and open a Bible. That went on for a year.

Then, in September of 1888, something more permanent took shape. A new congregation was organized, and at the front of it stood the Reverend Lacy Boone. The congregation had a name at first — Tyler City Mission — and they kept on meeting in private homes for worship services while they worked toward something bigger.

Early 1889, they acquired this very property and broke ground on a sanctuary. From home to house of worship. In the 1890s, the congregation took on a new name: Cedar Street Methodist Church.

The neighborhood grew up around it, and the church grew right along with it, weaving itself into the fabric of the community so tightly that you couldn't quite imagine one without the other. By 1916, a new sanctuary was completed. More facilities followed in the years after that.

And then, in 1948, the congregation had grown enough to warrant something larger still — a bigger auditorium, built to hold a membership that just kept coming. Now, the marker is honest about the years in between. Membership has gone up and down, responding to economic shifts, to physical changes in the neighborhood around it.

That's not failure — that's a congregation with roots deep enough to bend without breaking. Cedar Street United Methodist Church is still there, still serving a diverse membership, still an important part of the city of Tyler. More than a century from that first Sunday School in somebody's living room.

That's a long way to come from a folding chair and a borrowed hymnal.

What the marker says

This congregation traces its history to a Sunday School organized in 1887 in one of the new suburban neighborhoods north of Tyler. Created to serve people living away from the town's central Methodist Church (now Marvin United Methodist Church), the Sunday School classes met in homes until September 1888, when a new congregation was organized under the leadership of the Rev. Lacy Boone. First known as Tyler City Mission, the congregation met for worship services in private homes until this property was acquired and construction was begun on a sanctuary in early 1889. The church was renamed Cedar Street Methodist Church in the 1890s. As the congregation continued to grow, it became an integral part of its neighborhood. A new sanctuary was completed in 1916, and additional facilities were built in succeeding years. Continued growth resulted in the construction of a larger auditorium in 1948. Throughout its history, Cedar Street United Methodist Church has been closely associated with the neighborhood. Its membership has fluctuated in response to economic and physical changes in the surrounding area. It continues to serve a diverse membership and remains an important part of the city of Tyler.