Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church

Duane's take

The official marker for Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church in Brown County, this is my telling of it. Now, some stories begin with a name, and this one is no different.

The name is Bishop Benjamin Franklin Lee, born in 1841 and gone from this world in 1926, and it is his name that graces this congregation. Lee Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Say it with a little weight, because it carries some.

The church was organized in 1888, led by the Reverend George E. Smith, and right there you already have a man worth knowin. Because Reverend Smith wasn't just buildin a congregation.

He also organized the first school for black children in Brownwood. One man, two foundations, both of them layin the groundwork for a community to stand on. Now, where do you hold services when you're just gettin started, when the building hasn't come yet?

Well, the congregation first gathered inside Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Borrowed walls, but their own spirit.

And after that, services moved to a brush arbor at Smith's home. Out in the open, under the sky, the kind of worship that doesn't need stained glass to mean something. The first proper church building went up at Cordell and Henderick streets.

And then, in 1906, it was moved, the whole building, to this very site where the marker stands today. Moved, and stayed. That's the part that lands, isn't it.

Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church continues to serve its community still, an integral part of the city's history, rooted in a spot it chose in 1906, named for a bishop, built by a reverend who also built a school, begun in borrowed space and a brush arbor in somebody's yard. Some things, once they take root, just don't let go.

What the marker says

Named for Bishop Benjamin Franklin Lee (1841-1926), Lee Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1888. Led by the Rev. George E. Smith, who also organized the first school for blacks in Brownwood, the congregation first held worship services in Mt. Zion Baptist Church. Later services were held in a brush arbor at Smith's home. The first church building, originally located at Cordell and Henderick streets, was moved to this site in 1906. An integral part of the city's history, Lee Chapel A.M.E. Church continues to serve its community. (1989)