DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll spin it out the way Duane does. Way back in 1887, two families — the Sheltons and the Olivers — started gathering in the Shelton home with a circuit rider by the name of C. G.
Shutt. Now a circuit rider, for the uninitiated, was a preacher on horseback who covered more ground in a week than most folks covered in a year. They called their little gathering St.
Mark's Methodist Church, and from that humble living-room start, something was quietly, stubbornly taking root. The Olivers got Sunday School meetings going the very next year, 1888, and you could already feel the thing building — like a storm still a county away but definitely headed your direction. The congregation set their sights on a real building, right here on this site, and here is where the story gets interesting: it was largely the church women who funded it.
Not the prominent businessmen, not the city fathers — the women. That building went up in 1894 and was dedicated in 1901. By 1903, when Oak Cliff was annexed into the city of Dallas, this church claimed 317 members.
Eight years later, 856 congregants. The place was growing like a Texas summer thunderhead. So the leadership did what any ambitious congregation flush with momentum would do — they went and hired Sanguinet and Staats, the architectural firm behind the 1903 Wilson Building in Dallas, the 1907 Flatiron Building in Fort Worth, and the 1910 Scarborough Building in Austin.
These were not small names and they were not drawing small plans. The project they drafted for Oak Cliff Methodist Episcopal Church, South was nothing short of ambitious. And then — as grand ambitions have a way of doing — it stalled.
Funds ran short. The blueprints waited. But this congregation had already proven it knew how to wait with intention.
They picked the work back up in 1915, finished it that same year, and in January of 1916, the very first wedding was performed inside those walls. Now you'd think that would be cause for dedication, but this church was not about to dedicate a building it still owed money on. They waited until 1926 — until every last dollar of debt was retired — and then, with a membership of 1,649 souls, they held the dedication.
By then they had also put up an educational building, because 1,649 people have a lot of learning to do. The decades rolled on, the complex was enlarged and renovated as the congregation grew. Then 1958 brought fire — the sanctuary damaged, the congregation shaken.
But it was restored and back in use before the embers had cooled in anyone's memory. What stands today is a two-story brick edifice with a full basement, built on a cruciform plan — that is, shaped like a cross, which for a church seems like the least surprising and most meaningful choice imaginable. The front facade is dominated by a full-height pedimented entry portico, held up by cast concrete Tuscan columns.
Cast stone coping, a decorative brick frieze, Palladian doors — the classical revival details are everywhere you look, and every one of them is deliberate. It all started with two families, a circuit rider, and somebody's living room in 1887. By 1999, when the Texas Historical Commission set this marker, that story had earned every column and every stone.
What the marker says
This congregation was formed in 1887 when the Shelton and Oliver families began meeting with circuit rider C. G. Shutt in the Shelton home under the name St. Mark's Methodist Church. The Olivers began Sunday School meetings in 1888. The first Methodist church building on this site, largely funded by the efforts of church women, was erected in 1894 and dedicated in 1901. In 1903, when Oak Cliff was annexed to the city of Dallas, the church had 317 members; by 1911 there were 856 congregants. The architectural firm of Sanguinet and Staats, designers of the 1903 Wilson Building in Dallas, the 1907 Flatiron Building in Fort Worth and the 1910 Scarborough Building in Austin, drew up plans for the Oak Cliff Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The ambitious project was delayed for a time because of a lack of funds, but was resumed in 1915 and completed that year. The first wedding was performed in the building in January 1916. The edifice was dedicated in 1926 after the debt had been retired. By that time the membership was 1,649 and an educational building was erected. The church complex has been enlarged and renovated as needed. Though the sanctuary was damaged by fire in 1958, it was soon restored and back in use. The Oak Cliff United Methodist church building consists of two stories and a full basement. The brick-clad edifice, designed on a cruciform plan, features a front facade dominated by a full height pedimented entry portico supported on cast concrete Tuscan columns. Other classical revival details, including cast stone coping, decorative brick frieze and palladian doors, make this structure distinctive. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1999