China Spring Tabernacle

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out in China Spring, there's a building that's seen just about everything a Texas farming community could throw at it, and it's still standing. The China Spring Tabernacle.

Two stories tall, constructed about 1903, on property deeded by a woman named Lavantia Conger. That's where the story begins. A deed, a plot of land, and somebody with the vision to put something on it worth gathering around.

The farming community of China Spring needed a civic center, and this building answered that call. Now picture it in its early days with an outside wooden staircase climbing up the side of the structure. That staircase had a purpose.

Camp 707 of the Woodmen of the World had organized back in 1899, and they conducted their meetings up on that second floor. Up those outside steps they climbed, year after year, holding their gatherings above the comings and goings of the ground floor below. They kept that up until 1969.

That's a long run for any organization in any building. Then came 1934, and the Works Progress Administration came through and remodeled the place. The outside staircase was removed in that remodeling.

The building changed its face a little, but it never stopped working. And here is where the Tabernacle earns its legend. School assemblies.

Church revivals. Traveling shows rolling into China Spring with something to sell or something to perform. Amateur theatricals, which, if you've ever seen a small-town production, you know those can go any direction at all.

Lectures. Political rallies. This building held them all.

One structure, one farming community, and somewhere in the neighborhood of every reason people ever had to come together under a roof. The China Spring Tabernacle didn't need to be anything fancy. It just needed to be there.

And it was.

What the marker says

Constructed about 1903 on property deeded by Lavantia Conger, this two-story building has served as a civic center for the farming community of China Spring. An outside wooden staircase was removed when the structure was remodeled in 1934 by the Works Progress Administration. Camp 707 of the Woodmen of the World, organized in 1899, conducted meetings on the second floor until 1969. The Tabernacle has been used for school assemblies, church revivals, traveling shows, amateur theatricals, lectures, and political rallies. (1980)