College Street Church of Christ

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture 1880 in a place still finding itself, a little community out in the Texas Hill Country going by the name of Junction City. Into that community rides a man named A.

J. Bush. And A.

J. Bush, he doesn't waste time. He gathers seventeen men and women together and they form a Church of Christ right then and there.

Seventeen souls. Not a hundred, not fifty; seventeen. But you don't need a crowd to start something that lasts.

At first, they held their services in the county courthouse. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty good arrangement: justice and faith sharing the same roof. But the church kept growing, and two years after that founding, those members built their first sanctuary.

A place of their own. Then comes 1883, and a man named John S. Durst steps into the role of minister.

Now, here's where you sit up straight. John S. Durst served that church for forty-two years.

Forty-two. Congregations rise and fall, buildings come and go, but Durst stayed the course. And those buildings, they did come and go.

Right here on this very site, in 1890, the members put up a new building. That one gave way to the current building in 1929. Three structures on the same ground, each one a chapter in the same long story.

For more than a century now, the College Street Church of Christ has been woven into the fabric of what used to be called Junction City, and what folks today just call Junction. Seventeen people answered a call in 1880, and that answer is still echoing.

What the marker says

In 1880, A. J. Bush arrived in this community, which was then called Junction City. Here he led 17 men and women in forming a Church of Christ. Two years later, after initially holding services in the county courthouse, members of the growing church built their first sanctuary. In 1883, John S. Durst began his 42-year tenure as the church's minister. On this site in 1890, members constructed a new building, which was replaced by the current building in 1929. For more than a century, the Church of Christ has participated in numerous service projects and remains an integral part of Junction's religious community. (2005)