DUANE
Get the App
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, when a town is brand new and the dust hasn't even settled, somebody's got to be the first to gather folks together. In Elgin, that somebody was the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
They organized in 1874, making this the very first congregation started in the town of Elgin. First. Not second, not tied for first.
First. That's a distinction worth remembering. They started with a small frame sanctuary built right here in 1882, and for a while, that little building did the job.
But Elgin was growing, and growing towns tend to dream bigger than their frame buildings can hold. So they called on a local contractor by the name of J. C.
Miller, and J. C. Miller delivered.
What he built in its place was a Gothic revival structure, completed in October of 1906. Now, when they say Gothic revival, they are not talkin' about something modest. You step back and look at this building and it has what the marker calls stairstep gable corbelling.
That alone is the kind of architectural flourish that makes a passerby slow down. Then there are small corner pinnacles arranged around a larger towered entryway, reaching upward like the building itself has something to say. And the memorial art glass windows.
Those windows aren't decoration so much as dedication, holding light and memory together in the same pane of glass. From a simple frame building in 1882 to this, finished by Miller's hand in October 1906. Elgin's first congregation didn't just endure.
They built something that still stops you in your tracks.
What the marker says
Organized in 1874 as the Elgin Methodist Episcopal Church, South, this was the first congregation started in the town of Elgin. A small frame sanctuary built here in 1882 was replaced by this Gothic revival structure. Built by local contractor J. C. Miller, it was completed in October 1906. Prominent features include its stairstep gable corbelling, small corner pinnacles around the larger towered entryway, and memorial art glass windows. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988