Highland Park Methodist Church

Duane's take

Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker, so let's follow it where it leads. The story of Highland Park Methodist Church begins — as so many good Texas stories do — with something small that was fixing to become something considerable. Early February 1916, a congregation takes root at Southern Methodist University.

They called it the University Church, and those first members came straight from the campus itself: faculty, students, people who had chalk dust on their coats and big ideas in their heads. Methodist Bishop Edwin D. Mouzon appointed the Reverend A.

Frank Smith as the church's first pastor. That's where it starts. But here's where it starts to grow.

Methodist families living in the new suburb of Highland Park began transferring their memberships, bringing support and leadership with them. The church got a new name to match its new identity — Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church, South — and by the end of that same year, 1916, the charter roll listed two hundred and twenty-five members. Not bad for a congregation that had barely drawn its first breath in February.

Southern Methodist University donated the land right here at this site, also in 1916, and the following year, 1917, the congregation put up a temporary structure. They called it the Little Brown Church. I like that name.

Nothing fancy about it, no pretense — just a little brown church doing what churches do. Then 1923 rolls around, and the town of Highland Park annexes the church property. The marker calls it a legal formality, and that formality cleared the way for something a good deal less temporary: a full Gothic Revival sanctuary, erected in 1926.

Gothic Revival. Out here on the Texas prairie, they built something with the bones of a European cathedral. Between 1950 and 1961, with membership climbing fast, the congregation added three new buildings to the main campus.

By 1995, membership exceeded ten thousand five hundred souls. From two hundred and twenty-five names on a charter roll to more than ten thousand five hundred — that little brown church cast a long shadow. And through all of it, the congregation held to its commitment to community service and international missions.

That thread runs from the very beginning, all the way to the present. Some things, it turns out, don't need to be renamed or rebuilt. They just endure.

What the marker says

This congregation traces its origin to the founding of a church at Southern Methodist University in early February 1916. Known as the University Church, its first members came from the campus community of faculty and students.Methodist Bishop Edwin D. Mouzon appointed the Rev. A. Frank Smith as first pastor. The church gained added support and leadership when Methodist families living in the new suburb of Highland Park transferred their memberships. It was renamed Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and at the end of 1916 the charter roll listed 225 members. Southern Methodist University donated land at this site to the church in 1916, and in 1917 the congregation erected a temporary structure known as the "Little Brown Church." The town of Highland Park annexed the church property in 1923, a legal formality that cleared the way for construction of a new Gothic Revival sanctuary in 1926. Due to rapid growth in membership, the church added three new buildings to its main campus between 1950 and 1961. By 1995 membership exceeded 10,500. The congregation continues its historic commitment to community service and international missions.