First Methodist Church of Smithville

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Back in 1888, out in Smithville, a preacher by the name of Reverend H. M.

Haynie gathered up eight charter members and organized what would become the First Methodist Church of Smithville. Eight people. That's it.

You could seat them all at a single long table with room to spare. But they had a congregation, and a congregation needs a place to meet, so they did what practical Texans do. They borrowed the local school and made it work.

For years, that's where they gathered. Not exactly a cathedral, but it was theirs. Then, in 1893, a frame sanctuary was completed, and the congregation finally had a building to call their own.

Things were looking up. Then 1912 rolled around, and the members decided it was time to think bigger. A new brick structure went up, the work stretching through 1912 and into 1913.

Solid. Permanent. The kind of building that says we are not going anywhere.

And then, as if to test that very resolve, fire came calling in 1922. The damage was real. But here is where the story turns, because the congregation didn't walk away from the wreckage.

They rebuilt. And not just rebuilt. They enlarged.

What came back from that fire was something grander than what the flames had touched. The building standing today carries echoes of Gothic revival and Romanesque architecture, two styles that don't always keep company together but somehow found common ground in Smithville. Art glass windows catch the light.

A zig-zag wall runs along the structure in a way that makes you look twice. And then there's the truncated tower, cut short, distinctive, the kind of architectural choice that sticks in your memory long after you've driven on down the road. Eight people and a borrowed schoolroom in 1888.

That's where it started. What's standing now is the rest of that story.

What the marker says

Organized in 1888 by the Rev. H. M. Haynie and eight charter members, the Methodist congregation in Smithville met in the local school until a frame sanctuary was completed in 1893. A new brick structure was built in 1912-13. Following damage in a 1922 fire, it was rebuilt and enlarged. Exhibiting influences of the Gothic revival and Romanesque styles of architecture, the building features art glass windows, a zig-zag wall, and truncated tower. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988