Immaculate Conception Catholic Church

Duane's take

Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. This is Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, out in Denton County, and friend, this congregation has been at it longer than most Texas families have had running water. Now, every great church has to start somewhere, and this one started (I want you to really picture this) on the second floor of a barn.

About 1890, this congregation began as a mission of the Dallas Diocese, with the Reverend F. X. Meilinger serving as mission priest.

No grand cathedral, no stained glass catching the Sunday light. Just the second floor of a local barn and, I'd wager, a whole lot of faith keeping the floorboards from feeling too humble. Now, they didn't stay up in that hayloft forever.

By 1893 and into 1894, a proper church building had been erected. Something with walls that said we are here, we are staying. And stay they did.

The 1930s brought a Catholic student society organized right there within that congregation; a sign the community was growing, putting down roots, thinking about its young people and its future. Then came 1956, and here's where the story takes one of those turns. The original building (the one that replaced the barn, the one that had stood through decades of Texas summers and the grinding years of the thirties) was razed.

Torn down and replaced with a new brick structure on that same ground. Sometimes you honor a foundation by building something stronger on top of it. The congregation kept right on building.

In 1966, a parish center went up nearby. And in 1970, they established a hospital ministry and an outreach program to provide for the needy. From a barn loft to brick walls to reaching out to the sick and struggling, that is one congregation that never stopped asking what more it could do.

The marker tells us the congregation continues to provide a variety of programs for the community, and somehow, knowing where they started, that doesn't surprise me one bit.

What the marker says

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church This church began as a mission of the Dallas Diocese about 1890; the Rev. F. X. Meilinger served as mission priest. The congregation held services on the second floor of a local barn until a church building was erected in 1893-94. A Catholic student society was organized in the 1930s. The original building was razed and replaced with a new brick structure here in 1956. The church built a parish center nearby in 1966 and established a hospital ministry and outreach program to provide for the needy in 1970. The congregation continues to provide a variety of programs for the community. (1994)