DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the marker's own account, the way I'd tell it sitting around a fire off I-35 in Bell County. The First United Methodist Church of Temple — now there's a story with a beginning, a burning, and a comeback. The congregation was organized in 1882, just one year after the city of Temple itself was founded.
So before the town had barely figured out what it was going to be, the people were already gathering. Their first pastor was the Reverend E. R.
Barcus, the man who got this whole thing started on this very site. For years that original structure stood, holding the congregation together, serving the community. Then 1911 came along, and the fire came with it.
The original structure on this site was destroyed. Gone. Now that's the kind of moment that can break a community — or define it.
Well, Temple being Temple, they didn't quit. Three years after that fire, they had a new building standing in its place. And they didn't just throw something up quick to fill the hole.
They brought in architects Sanguinet and Staats out of Fort Worth, and what those men designed was a Romanesque Revival building — arches, mass, permanence, the kind of structure that says we are not going anywhere. For many years after, this sanctuary was the largest in the area, and the congregation shared it generously. Civic meetings, school functions — this church opened its doors and let the whole community inside.
One congregation, one fire, one magnificent answer. That's what's standing on this site today.
What the marker says
The Rev. E.R. Barcus served as the first pastor of the congregation, organized in 1882, one year after the city of Temple was founded. The original structure on this site was destroyed by fire in 1911. The present Romanesque Revival building was finished three years later. Architects were Sanguinet & Staats of Fort Worth. For many years civic meetings and school functions were conducted in the sanctuary, the largest in the area. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1979