DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Sloan Memorial United Methodist Church, right there in Harris County. Now, some stories begin with a cornerstone and a ceremony. This one begins with a tent.
Back in 1880, the Rev. Ed Roscoe — with the help of the Rev. George Davis and the Rev.
James Smith — called a congregation together right here on this ground. No walls, no roof to speak of, just canvas and faith and whoever showed up willing to be part of something. That first organizational meeting, held under that tent, was the seed of one of the oldest Black Methodist churches in all of Houston.
Rev. Roscoe served as the first pastor. And the people who gathered with him weren't waiting around for someone else to make it official.
The very next year, 1881, three church trustees — Wash Breed, Robert Swiley, and Dick Thomas — went out and purchased the property outright from a local realtor by the name of J. E. Foster.
They owned the ground they worshipped on. That mattered. The land sat on Sloan Street — later renamed Sydnor — and the congregation took that address as their name: Sloan Street Methodist Episcopal Church.
Now, here's where the story takes a hard turn. In 1912, fire took the first sanctuary and the parsonage both. Everything they'd built from that tent-meeting beginning, gone.
But a congregation that started under canvas wasn't about to stop meeting. While a new chapel went up, the people gathered in a frame building at the corner of Meadow and Nance. You keep worshipping.
You keep building. The new construction rose. And then in 1950, a building program brought still more facilities into being.
The congregation that had started with a tent and three trustees and a street name had grown into something substantial — a significant force, the marker says, in the development of the local neighborhood, going all the way back to the 1880s. Business leaders, professionals, religious figures, civic leaders — they've all counted themselves members here. Sloan Memorial United Methodist Church.
Started under a tent. Built, burned, rebuilt, and still standing. Some foundations run a whole lot deeper than the soil they're set in.
What the marker says
One of the oldest Black Methodist churches in Houston, this congregation was started in 1880 by the Rev. Ed Roscoe, who served as the first pastor, with the assistance of the Rev. George Davis and the Rev. James Smith. The organizational meeting was held under a tent at this site. In 1881, church trustees Wash Breed, Robert Swiley, and Dick Thomas purchased the property from J. E. Foster, a local realtor. Since the land was located on Sloan Street, later renamed Sydnor, the original congregational name was Sloan Street Methodist Episcopal Church. The first sanctuary and parsonage were destroyed by fire in 1912. During construction of a new chapel, worship services were held in a frame building at the corner of Meadow and Nance. Additional facilities were completed during a 1950 building program. A significance force in the development of the local neighborhood since the 1880s, Sloan Memorial United Methodist Church has been active in community action programs. Members here have included several prominent business, professional, religious, and civic leaders of the area. (1981)