DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Reedy Chapel A.M.E. Church has to say — and this one earns every word of it. Now, if you want to understand what it means to build something that refuses to quit, you pull up right here on this Galveston lot and you listen close.
The story starts before this building, with the one that came before it. The first Reedy Chapel Church stood on this very site — until the Galveston fire of 1885 took it down. Gone.
And what do you do when fire takes your church? You build another one. That's exactly what this congregation did.
Under the pastorate of the Reverend J. E. Edwards, contractor E.
F. Campbell broke ground in 1886. Simple enough plan.
Except Galveston had other ideas. Four storms hit the island that year. Four.
Not one inconvenient squall, not a rough weekend — four storms in a single year, hammering away at everything Campbell was trying to put up. The project that was supposed to be done in 1886 didn't reach completion until 1887. You can almost picture Campbell looking out at the Gulf, wondering what else it had in mind.
Turns out, the Gulf wasn't finished. The hurricane of 1900 — and if you've spent any time in Galveston you know that storm needs no introduction — severely damaged the building. Severely.
But here's the thing: they restored it. Brought it all the way back to its original Gothic style. Every arch, every line, right back to what it was.
And still the congregation wasn't done tending to this place. The church was repaired and enlarged in 1947, and then again in 1957. Two more times, they put their hands to it.
Fire. Four storms. A hurricane that reshaped this island.
And Reedy Chapel A.M.E. is still standing right here. Some buildings just decide they're not leaving.
What the marker says
This structure, erected during the pastorate of the Rev. J. E. Edwards, replaced the first Reedy Chapel Church on this site, destroyed by the 1885 Galveston fire. Contractor E. F. Campbell began construction in 1886. Four storms hit the island that year, delaying completion of the project until 1887. Severely damaged by the hurricane of 1900, the building was restored to its original Gothic style. The church was repaired and enlarged again in 1947 and 1957. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1975