Saint Beulah Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how Duane tells it. Now, you might drive through Pittsburg, Texas and your eye catches a little wood-frame church with two towers that don't quite match each other, and you might think, somebody made a mistake. But pull over.

Because that asymmetry is the whole personality of the place. This is Saint Beulah Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, and the story starts with a man named Reverend Joseph Lloyd. He came to Pittsburg somewhere between 1870 and 1889, and he did what preachers with a calling do.

He organized the C.M.E. Church there in Camp County. The marker doesn't give us a single dramatic date for that founding, just that window of years, which honestly feels right.

Good things take time to root. Then comes 1896. That's when the congregation built this sanctuary, this Gothic revival building in wood frame, which is already a fine combination of humble material and grand ambition.

And once the walls were up and the roof was on, they gave it a name. They called it Saint Beulah. The name came after the building rose, not before.

Now look at that facade. Two towers, different sizes, standing right next to each other without apology. And those windows.

Lancet windows, the tall pointed kind that Gothic revival demands, and they're filled with stained glass. Every one of them donated by members of the congregation. Different hands, different families, different pieces of colored light, all working together to make something whole.

That's the thing about Saint Beulah. The asymmetry isn't a flaw. It's a record of real people building something that mattered, tower by tower, window by window, in Pittsburg, Texas.

What the marker says

The C.M.E. Church in Pittsburg was organized by the Rev. Joseph Lloyd, who came here between 1870 and 1889. The name St. Beulah was adopted after this sanctuary was constructed in 1896. The wood frame Gothic revival building has an asymmetrical facade with two towers of differing sizes. The stained glass lancet windows were donated by various members of the congregation. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985