Site of Swedish Evangelical Free Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Back in 1889, a group of Swedish immigrants out in the Decker community, about ten miles east of here, started holding worship services. Just gathering, praying, singing, holding on to something familiar in a land that was still pretty new to them.

Those services took root. By July of 1892, they had founded the Swedish Evangelical Free Church, right there in Decker. Now meanwhile, about twenty miles to the southeast, over in Elroy, a similar thing was happening.

Another Swedish congregation came together, and that one got its start in April of 1904. Two congregations, same language, same faith, separated by a stretch of Texas road. Then comes 1923, and the two decide they're stronger together.

They merge. They relocate to Austin. And by 1925, they've built themselves a church right here on this very site.

For years, Swedish was the language you'd hear inside those walls, prayers and hymns carried in the old tongue, right up until the 1930s when the language of the services finally shifted. The congregation kept growing, kept changing, and in 1952 they took a new name: First Evangelical Free Church. Then in 1962, after selling this property to the State of Texas, the fellowship erected a new building on Red River Street.

So what you're standing on now is the ground where two immigrant communities, two separate sparks struck decades and miles apart, finally came together, built something lasting, and then moved on to build something new. That's a pretty good run for a patch of Austin ground.

What the marker says

Worship services started in 1889 by Swedish immigrants led to founding of Swedish Evangelical Free Church in Decker community (10 mi. E) in July 1892. A similar Swedish congregation originated in April 1904 at Elroy (20 mi. SE). In 1923 the two congregations merged, relocated in Austin, and in 1925 built a church on this site. Swedish was spoken in services until the 1930s. Renamed "First Evangelical Free Church" in 1952, the fellowship erected a new building on Red River street in 1962, after selling this property to the State of Texas. (1977)