First Methodist Church of Stephenville

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, some stories start before the town does, and this is one of them. The First Methodist Church of Stephenville, over in Erath County, traces its history all the way back to the founding of Stephenville itself.

We're talking 1855, when this congregation first organized, with exactly ten charter members. Ten. You could've fit the whole founding congregation around a dinner table, and probably did.

But they were here, they were committed, and they were getting to work. Early on, those worship services were held in the Masonic lodge building right on the town square. Borrowed space, maybe, but the spirit was all their own.

Now here's where the story gets a little architectural. By the 1890s, this congregation had grown enough to put up a real sanctuary, a proper house of worship, and they did just that. But then, in 1917, they did something that still turns heads today.

They replaced that earlier sanctuary with a Beaux Arts style building. And not just any Beaux Arts building. We're talkin' giant order Corinthian columns, the kind that make you stop on the sidewalk and look up.

Art glass windows catching the Texas light. This wasn't a congregation thinking small anymore. That building is still standing, still serving the community, still anchoring that corner of Stephenville the way it has since 1917.

Ten charter members in 1855, meeting in a borrowed lodge on the square. A Beaux Arts landmark by 1917. Some things start quiet and end up impossible to ignore.

What the marker says

This congregation, organized in 1855 with ten charter members, traces its history to the founding of Stephenville. Early worship services were held in the Masonic lodge building on the town square. A sanctuary erected in the 1890s was replaced by this Beaux Arts style building in 1917. Featuring giant order Corinthian columns and art glass windows, it remains an important local landmark as the church continues to serve the community. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1988