DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna do it justice. Way back in 1884, two people sat down with a purpose — Rev. A.R.
Griggs and Jane Johnson Calloway Endsley — and they built something meant to last. What they organized was the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church, a congregation raised up to serve the African American Baptist community of Dallas. Now, that is not a small thing.
That is a foundation stone. And like most foundation stones, it wasn't laid once and forgotten — it had to be carried. Starting in 1907, the congregation went through a series of relocations.
You can imagine it, the whole community pickin' up and movin', keepin' the thing alive through every shift and change that Dallas threw at them. Then, in 1950, Macedonia settled at its current address, and that word settled carries some weight after all those years of movin'. During that formative period, the congregation was led by Rev.
L.J. Taylor and his wife, Portia C. Ross Taylor.
The two of them became instrumental in education advocacy for the community — not just tending the congregation, but pushin' for something bigger than Sunday mornings. Rev. Griggs had passed by 1922, Jane Johnson Calloway Endsley by 1933, but the church they built together kept right on growin'.
By 2001, the membership had grown enough that the church purchased additional property at 1607 McCoy Street just to accommodate everybody who wanted in. One hundred and seventeen years after two people organized something in 1884, Macedonia was still expanding. The marker calls it an anchor for the Dallas community — and after a hundred-plus years of relocations, advocacy, growth, and persistence, that word anchor sounds exactly right.
What the marker says
In 1884, Rev. A.R. Griggs (d. 1922) and Jane Johnson Calloway Endsley (d. 1933) organized the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church to serve the African American Baptist community of Dallas. After a series of relocations starting in 1907, the congregation settled at its current address in 1950. Rev. L.J. Taylor and his wife, Portia C. Ross Taylor, led the congregation during this formative period, and became instrumental for education advocacy in the community. In 2001, the church purchased additional property at 1607 McCoy Street to accommodate membership. Due to its longstanding legacy and vibrant membership, Macedonia continues to be an anchor for the Dallas community. (2015)