DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Dallas has got corners that'll stop you cold — where the brick and the mortar and the years just stack up into something that feels like it means something. Munger Place has got one of those corners.
The story starts in 1914, when a congregation organized itself to serve the Munger Place and East Dallas communities. No grand building yet, just people with a purpose and a patch of neighborhood to look after. Programs, community, something to hold folks together.
That was the mission, and they kept at it. Then came 1925. The Rev.
George M. Gibson was leading the pastorate, and under his watch, they built the sanctuary that still stands today. Now, they didn't just put up four walls and call it holy.
They called in C. D. Hill — a prominent Dallas architect, and the man had a vision.
He reached all the way across the Atlantic, in spirit at least, and came back with the English Gothic style. And friend, when C. D.
Hill did English Gothic, he did not do it halfway. Symmetrical side gables sweep up on either side like a congregation rising to its feet. There's a corner square-plan tower standing watch like it's been there since before the neighborhood had a name.
And then there are the windows — unusual tracery and decorative details that'll make you stop mid-stride on the sidewalk and just look up. It's been a landmark in that neighborhood ever since. Not just on paper — in the bones of East Dallas itself.
Some buildings hold a date. This one holds a community.
What the marker says
Organized in 1914, this church has served the Munger Place and East Dallas communities with a variety of programs. A neighborhood landmark, this sanctuary was built in 1925 during the pastorate of the Rev. George M. Gibson. Designed in the English Gothic style by prominent Dallas architect C. D. Hill, its features include symmetrical side gables, a corner square-plan tower, and unusual window tracery and decorative details. RTHL 1990