Ebenezer (Third) Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight off the Texas Historical Commission's own words. Now, pull up a chair, because this story starts the way the best ones do: in somebody's living room. February 1875, Reverend C.

Ward organized the Ebenezer Third Baptist Church right there in the home of Mrs. Elisa Hawkins, at 1104 East Tenth Street in Austin. No grand sanctuary, no stained glass, no bell tower.

Just a congregation findin' its footing in a private home. But congregations grow, and this one had plans. The first frame structure went up at the corner of Catalpa and Curve streets, modest and sturdy, doing its job.

Then the membership outgrew it. That's the thing about a church with roots, it keeps reachin'. So in 1885, a brick sanctuary with stained glass windows was erected at the corner of East Tenth and San Marcos streets.

Real glass, real brick, a building that said this community meant to stay. Then 1915 brought the stucco tabernacle, another chapter laid right on top of the last. And from 1950 to 1955, the present Sanctuary and Education Complex was erected, limestone and brick, Gothic design, a tower rising up from the street.

Inside that tower hangs the bell from the first brick church. They didn't leave it behind. They carried it forward.

A parsonage was also built at 1203 Cotton Street, rounding out everything a congregation needs to hold itself together across generations. From Mrs. Hawkins' front room in 1875 to a Gothic tower housing a bell that's older than the building it lives in, Ebenezer Third Baptist didn't just grow.

It remembered where it came from.

What the marker says

The Ebenezer (Third) Baptist Church was organized by Reverend C. Ward, February 1875, in the home of Mrs. Elisa Hawkins at 1104 East Tenth Street. The first frame structure was built at the corner of Catalpa and Curve streets. The membership outgrew this church, and a brick sanctuary with stained glass windows was erected at the corner of East Tenth and San Marcos streets in 1885. In 1915, the stucco tabernacle was erected. The present Sanctuary and Education Complex was erected in 1950-1955. The limestone and brick structure is of Gothic design and the tower houses the bell from the first brick church. Also, a parsonage was built at 1203 Cotton Street.