DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Grace United Methodist Church in Harris County. Now settle in, because this story starts — as the best Texas stories often do — with a handful of determined women and a dream that was bigger than any building they had at the time. The year was 1905, and out in Houston Heights, several women gathered together and formed the Home Missionary Society of Houston Heights.
That meeting, modest as it might have looked from the outside, was the seed of everything that followed. The Rev. Stephen McKinney came on as the first pastor of what would come to be called the Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
And for a spell, this congregation was a congregation on the move — worship services held in a variety of locations, wherever they could find a roof and enough room to raise a hymn. But they weren't content to wander forever. By 1906, they had erected a permanent sanctuary right here on this very site.
That's roots, friends. That's a congregation putting down stakes and saying, we're staying. Then, just a few years later, they went and built bigger.
A larger building went up in 1911 and 1912, and that structure served the congregation all the way through 1971 — sixty-some-odd years of Sundays, of baptisms and funerals and everything in between. Along the way, in 1950, the church took a new name: Grace Methodist. And under every name it's carried, this congregation has been woven into the fabric of Houston Heights — educational programs, outreach programs, a history of showing up for its members and its community alike.
Some things in Texas are built to last. Turns out, so are the people who build them.
What the marker says
Associated with the development of Houston Heights, this congregation began in 1905 with the meeting of several women who formed the Home Missionary Society of Houston Heights. The Rev. Stephen McKinney served as first pastor of Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, South, as it came to be called. Worship services were held in a variety of locations until the congregation erected a permanent sanctuary on this site in 1906. A larger building, constructed in 1911-12, served the congregation until 1971. Renamed Grace Methodist in 1950, the church has provided its members and the community with strong educational and outreach programs throughout its history. (2001)