Riviera United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Riviera United Methodist Church, out in Kleberg County. Now, Riviera had only been a town for three years when the Rev. C.W.

Perkins rode in and got to work. On March 27, 1910, he organized a congregation, and he didn't do it halfway. Thirty-one charter members signed on from the start.

They called it the Riviera Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and for a while they gathered in a one-room schoolhouse, because that's what you do when you've got faith but not yet a building. The building came in 1912, and when it did, that congregation had something to anchor to. They were serving a vegetable and citrus farming area that spread over eighteen thousand, eight hundred acres.

Think about that for a moment. Eighteen thousand, eight hundred acres of folks who needed a place to come together. Then the hard times arrived, the way hard times always do in South Texas.

Hurricanes. Drought. The kind of slow, grinding forces that can hollow out a town from the inside.

And Riviera did decline. The marker doesn't flinch from that word. Decline.

But here is where the story turns. That 1912 sanctuary is still standing. The congregation is still in it.

Through every storm that rolled in off the coast, through every dry year that cracked the earth, that church stayed put and stayed a major force in the community. Some things, it turns out, are just harder to knock down than a town.

What the marker says

On March 27, 1910, three years after Riviera was established, the Rev. C.W. Perkins organized this congregation with 31 charter members. Originally named Riviera Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the fellowship met in a one-room schoolhouse until the church building was completed in 1912. The congregation served a vegetable and citrus farming area that spread over 18,800 acres. Despite hurricanes and drought, which have caused the town to decline, the church, which continues to occupy its 1912 sanctuary, remains a major force in the community. (1983)