DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little room to breathe. Now, you want to talk about humble beginnings — and I mean truly humble — let's talk about Riverside Methodist Church in Tarrant County. According to local oral tradition, this congregation got its start in March of 1888.
The Reverend C.F. Vance and ten people. That's it.
Ten souls and a preacher, and they held Sunday School in an abandoned saloon at East First and Sylvania Streets. An abandoned saloon. There's something almost poetic about that — the kind of place that had seen its share of sins now being pressed into service for something a little more redemptive.
But that's the story as it's been passed down, and who are we to argue with oral tradition? After the congregation got itself properly organized, the members bought land at the corner of East First and Ross Avenue — which you'd know today as Retta — and in 1893 they built themselves a frame sanctuary. A real building.
Something with walls and a roof and a little dignity. In those early years, the congregation leaned on visiting ministers and on students from Polytechnic College, which is now Texas Wesleyan University, to keep the preaching going. Then in 1907, the whole church building got picked up and moved — the way Texans do — to the southeast corner of Noble Street and Frey Avenue, which you'd know today as Riverside Drive.
That building served the congregation faithfully, right up until 1925, when it was replaced by a basement dug for a new structure. A basement. Just the basement, sitting there waiting, because that's how you build something meant to last — you start at the bottom and you take your time.
Now here's where the name business gets a little tangled. In 1924, the church changed its name to Sylvania Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, South. But then in 1935, when Frey Avenue was renamed Riverside Drive, the church reverted — their word, and I like it — reverted to its original name.
The street changed, the name followed it back. A sanctuary was finally completed over that 1925 basement in 1937 — twelve years of patient waiting — and then in 1951, a new facility was built on adjacent lots. By 1968, a denominational name change made it Riverside United Methodist Church.
And then, with highway construction bearing down and the neighborhood shifting underneath them, the congregation made one more move — to this very site — in 1982. Nearly a century of moving, waiting, building, and renaming, and somehow the thread held. Started in a saloon with ten people and a reverend.
Ended up right here.
What the marker says
According to local oral tradition, Riverside Methodist Episcopal Church, South, began in March 1888, when the Rev. C.F. Vance and ten people held Sunday School in an abandoned saloon at E. First and Sylvania Streets. After organizing a congregation,the members bought land at the corner of E. First and Ross Avenue (now Retta) in 1893 and built a frame sanctuary. In its early years, the congregation was served by visiting ministers and by students at Polytechnic College (now Texas Wesleyan University). The church building was moved to the southeast corner of Noble Street and Frey Avenue (now Riverside Drive) in 1907. It continued in use until 1925, when it was replaced by a basement for a new structure. The name of the church was changed in 1924 to Sylvania Heights Methodist Episcopal Church, South, but in 1935 in reverted to its original name when Frey Avenue was renamed Riverside Drive. A sanctuary was completed over the 1925 basement in 1937, and a new facility was built on adjacent lots in 1951. Highway construction and changing neighborhood dynamics led to the Church's relocation to this site in 1982. After a denominational name change in 1968, it became known as Riverside United Methodist Church.