Shepherd Drive Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Shepherd Drive Methodist Church in Montgomery County. Now settle in, because this is a story about a congregation that just would not quit. It starts in 1899, in a part of the world then known as the Brunner Addition.

A group of Methodists gathered in a building called McClure's Assembly Hall and did what Methodists do when they find each other in the same room. They organized. The church they founded went by quite a mouthful: the McAshan and City Mission Methodist Church.

They built themselves a sanctuary right on this block in 1900. And then, that very same year, a severe storm destroyed it. Gone.

Just like that. Now, a lesser congregation might have taken that as a sign. These folks took it as a construction schedule.

A new sanctuary was completed in 1901. One year. They were back.

Then came the renaming years, and there were several. McAshan and Brunner Methodist in 1904. Brunner Methodist in 1906.

Brunner and Epworth Methodist in 1913. Each new name a little chapter of its own, the congregation shifting and growing and planting itself deeper into the neighborhood. When construction of a new church building began in 1917, the congregation became known as West End Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

By 1940 the church was still growing, acquiring additional land that included a parsonage and gave them a full block of frontage on Shepherd Drive. By 1942 they had a new name to match that address: Shepherd Drive Methodist Church. Then in 1954 and 1955 they built again, this time a proper complex with seventeen classrooms, a sanctuary, and a fellowship hall, right here at this site.

And in 1959 Shepherd Drive Methodist Church merged with the Larkin Street Methodist Church, a nearby congregation that had itself been organized back in 1916. Two communities of faith, folding into one. What you end up with, after all those storms and name changes and new buildings and mergers, is a congregation that has kept right on going: spiritual programs, youth outreach, support for seniors, community gatherings, and a hand in the civic and social life of the area.

That 1899 meeting in McClure's Assembly Hall started something that has lasted through just about everything this part of Texas could throw at it. Some foundations, it turns out, hold.

What the marker says

In 1899 a group of Methodists from this area, known then as the Brunner Addition, met in a building known as McClure's Assembly Hall and organized the McAshan and City Mission Methodist Church. A sanctuary, built on this block in 1900, was destroyed by a severe storm that year. A new sanctuary was completed in 1901. The church was renamed McAshan and Brunner Methodist in 1904, Brunner Methodist in 1906 and Brunner and Epworth Methodist in 1913. When construction of a new church building began in 1917, it became known as West End Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The church acquired additional land here in 1940 which included a parsonage and provided a full block of frontage on Shepherd Drive. By 1942 the congregation was known as the Shepherd Drive Methodist Church. In 1954-55 a new church building containing 17 classrooms, a sanctuary, and a fellowship hall was built at this site. In 1959 Shepherd Drive Methodist Church merged with the Larkin Street Methodist Church, a nearby congregation organized in 1916. This congregation continues its traditional spiritual programs, support of youth and senior outreach programs, promotion of community gatherings, and involvement in civic and social issues affecting the area. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995