Original Site of First Methodist Church of Austin

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. You're rolling past a spot in Austin that's been a corner of consequence, and the stone wants you to know it. This is the original site of the First Methodist Church of Austin, and the story starts in 1840.

That's when the Reverend John Haynie, born in 1786, established the congregation right here in what was still a raw, new capital city. Austin's second Protestant congregation, the marker is careful to say. Second.

Somebody else got there first, but the Methodists weren't far behind. Now, for a while, services happened wherever they could manage. Temporary quarters, as the official language puts it, which is a polite way of saying they made do.

But members weren't content to make do forever. In 1847, they raised up their first proper meeting house right here at the corner of Cedar Street and Congress Avenue. A small frame church, nothing grand, but it was theirs.

The Reverend Homer S. Thrall, born in 1819, was pastor when that little frame building went up. Hold that image in mind, because here is where the story takes a turn nobody would have predicted.

On January 17th through the 19th of 1853, thirty-five doctors gathered from around the state of Texas, came right here to this modest frame church, and organized the Texas Medical Association. Thirty-five physicians, one small building, three days, and something lasting came out of it. The Methodists hosted that.

Then, in 1854, the congregation moved on to a new brick church, a grander address, the corner of Brazos and Mulberry Street, which the marker tells us is now 10th Street. They outgrew the corner. But the corner never forgot them, and it never forgot those thirty-five doctors who chose it for something bigger than a Sunday sermon.

What the marker says

Established in 1840 by the Rev. John Haynie (1786-1860), the First Methodist Church was Austin's second Protestant congregation. Services were held in temporary quarters until members erected their first meeting house in 1847 at this site, then the corner of Cedar Street and Congress Avenue. The Rev. Homer S. Thrall (1819-1894) was pastor when the small frame church was built. Thirty-five doctors from around the state met here January 17-19, 1853, to organize the Texas Medical Association. In 1854 the Methodists moved to a new brick church on the corner of Brazos and Mulberry (now 10th) Street. (1978)