Original Site of St. Cyprian's Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Way back in 1893, the first Episcopal service ever held in Lufkin was conducted by the Reverend George L. Crocket, and he held it for two families, the W.

G. Garrons and the R. B.

Shearers. Just two families. You plant a seed, you see.

Two years later, in 1895, the Reverend C. M. Beckwith came through and established something called St.

Mary's Mission, and that gave the congregation a name, a purpose, a community. What it did not give them was walls. A roof.

A place to call their own. They went over a decade without a permanent church building, meeting and gathering and holding on. Then came 1906.

That was the year the structure right here on this site was erected, and with it came a new name: St. Cyprian's. They had their church at last.

For more than two decades that building stood as it was built, and then in 1929 they bricked it in, made it solid, made it permanent, made it the kind of building that says we are not going anywhere. And then fire came. The congregation didn't fold.

They moved to another location and carried on. But here is the part worth sittin' with. That original sanctuary, the one erected in 1906, the one that was bricked and gutted and survived all of it, still stands today.

In all of Lufkin, it is the oldest existing church building. Started with two families and a traveling reverend. Still standing.

What the marker says

The first Episcopal service in Lufkin was held in 1893 by the Rev. George L. Crocket for the W. G. Garron and R. B. Shearer families. St. Mary's Mission was established in 1895 by the Rev. C. M. Beckwith, but the congregation did not have a permanent church building until 1906 when the structure on this site was erected and the name St. Cyprian's was adopted. The building was bricked in 1929 and later gutted by fire, after which the congregation moved to another location. St. Cyprian's original sanctuary stands today as Lufkin's oldest existing church building. (1983)