DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm going to tell you this one the way the official marker tells it — so settle in, because this story's got more staying power than most buildings in Texas. Christ Episcopal Church, Matagorda County. The oldest Episcopal church in Texas.
That's not a small claim, and the years behind it will back it up. It traces its history to 1838, the year the Reverend Caleb S. Ives was appointed missionary to the Republic of Texas — not the state, mind you, the Republic.
Texas wasn't even in the Union yet when this congregation was finding its feet. The very first service was held on Christmas Day. Christmas Day, 1838.
And then, just a handful of weeks later, on January 27, 1839, the congregation was formally organized. They weren't wasting time. Land was donated — by two men, Albert Clinton Horton and Abner Lee Clements — and the first building went up.
The first service in that new building was held on Easter Sunday, 1841. Christmas to Easter, beginning to beginning. There's a rhythm to this place.
Reverend Ives and his wife Katherine weren't content to stop at a church. They established a school — the Matagorda Academy — which ran until 1849. A congregation, a building, a school.
Roots going down. Then 1854 arrived, and a hurricane took the first church. Just — gone.
But here is where the story turns from loss to something more stubborn. When they erected this new building, four hundred yards west of the original site, they went back into the wreckage of that 1841 church and they salvaged what they could. The altar.
The communion rail. The altar cross. The pews.
The new building rose up holding pieces of the one the storm took. Parts of what stands today date to 1856. The building's been hit by hurricanes since — numerous ones, the marker says, and it doesn't soften that word — but it's still standing, still holding that salvaged altar, still dressed in its Italianate and Gothic revival architecture, with its round-headed, paired lancet windows catching the Texas light.
Some things, it turns out, you can't blow down. You can only push them four hundred yards west and make them stronger.
What the marker says
This parish, the oldest Episcopal church in Texas, traces its history to 1838, the year the Rev. Caleb S. Ives was appointed missionary to the Republic of Texas. The first service was held on Christmas Day, and the congregation was formally organized on January 27, 1839. After land was donated by Albert Clinton Horton and Abner Lee Clements, the first building was erected. The first service was held in the new building on Easter Sunday 1841. Ives and his wife, Katherine, established a school, the Matagorda Academy, which was in operation until 1849. After the first church was destroyed in a hurricane in 1854, this building was erected 400 yards west of the original site. Some materials from the 1841 church were salvaged for use in the new structure, including the altar, communion rail, altar cross, and pews. Although this building has been damaged in numerous hurricanes, parts of it date to 1856. Exhibiting influences of the Italianate and Gothic revival styles of architecture, features include round-headed, paired lancet windows. Designated as a recorded Texas historic landmark, the structure received the official Texas Historical Building Medallion in 1962. (1988)