DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm passing it straight along to you. Way back on March 3, 1889, a congregation came together in the vicinity of Masontown — one of Austin's earliest African American settlements, bounded by East 3rd, East 6th, Chicon, and Waller streets. That was the birth of Mount Olive Baptist Church, and the neighborhood it was born into was alive with something you don't always get to witness: genuine, honest-to-goodness optimism.
Community activism, institution-building, a people carving out something lasting. Those early years of the congregation ran right alongside all of it. Now, the meeting that organized the church didn't happen in a finished building with pews and a pulpit.
It happened at Tillotson College — the very same institution that would eventually become Huston-Tillotson College — and the congregation kept worshiping there in those first years while they found their footing. Think about that. A college holding a church while that church figured out where it belonged.
Twenty years passed. Then, in 1909, under the leadership of the Reverend J.H. Harrold, Mount Olive moved into its first church building, right at 1603 East 4th Street, smack in the heart of Masontown.
That was home for a good long while. But congregations breathe and grow and shift, and space needs change. In 1939, during the tenure of the Reverend A.H.
Brown, they relocated again — this time to 1113 Leona Street. Then came another move, to 1800 East 11th Street, during the pastorate of the Reverend H.A. Sneed.
Three addresses, three eras, one unbroken thread. What's remarkable is that all this moving never meant drifting. Mount Olive stayed rooted in a part of Austin settled early by African Americans, and it never let go of its ties to Huston-Tillotson College.
Still actively pursuing local mission programs in the community — a congregation that organized in a borrowed room in 1889 and never stopped doing the work. That's not a story about a building. That's a story about a people who knew exactly who they were.
What the marker says
The Mount Olive Baptist Church congregation was organized March 3, 1889, in the vicinity of Masontown, one of Austin's earliest African American settlements. The early years of the congregation coincided with a period of intense optimism and community activism in the historic neighborhood (bounded by E. 3rd, E. 6th, Chicon, and Waller streets). A number of significant African American religious and educational institutions were established in and around Masontown during this period, including Tillotson College (now Huston-Tillotson College), where the church's organizational meeting and early worship services took place. In 1909, under the leadership of the Rev. J.H. Harrold, the congregation moved to its first church building at 1603 E. 4th Street in the heart of Masontown. Changing space needs led the congregation to relocate to 1113 Leona Street in 1939 during the tenure of the Rev. A.H. Brown, and later to 1800 E. 11th Street during the pastorate of the Rev. H.A. Sneed. Still located in an area of Austin settled early by African Americans, the Mount Olive Baptist Church congregation continues to maintain its historic ties to Huston-Tillotson College and actively pursues local mission programs in the community. (1991)