DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'm just the one passin' it along. Out in Bosque County, in 1913, a group of local Episcopalians got together and founded the St. James congregation.
Now, two of those charter members were Dr. James Julius Lumpkin and his wife, Ida Etoile Fuller Lumpkin, and they didn't just show up and sign their names. They donated the very site the church would stand on.
Church officials consecrated the new facilities that same year, and just like that, St. James was open for business, so to speak. The congregation prospered.
It served the community, and for a time it even shared its facilities with Faith Lutheran Church. Two congregations, one roof. That's a certain kind of neighborly spirit that's hard to manufacture.
But membership at St. James declined over the years. That's a quiet kind of ending, the kind that happens slowly, one empty pew at a time.
By 1994, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth donated the deconsecrated property to the Alliance for Justice Foundation. Now, the building is still standing, and it is worth looking at. The vernacular frame sanctuary carries Gothic Revival influences, lancet windows reaching upward, and a gable end entry with a segmented glass arch.
Flanking it is what was once the parish hall of St. James. Founded by two people generous enough to give the ground it stood on, shaped by Gothic hands, shared freely in its prime, and passed along at the end to something new.
That little church in Bosque County has been giving since day one.
What the marker says
Local Episcopalians founded the St. James congregation in 1913. Charter members Dr. James Julius Lumpkin and his wife, Ida Etoile (Fuller), donated this site, and church officials consecrated the new facilities that year. The church prospered in service to the community and for a time shared its facilities with Faith Lutheran Church. Membership at St. James declined over the years, and in 1994, the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth donated the deconsecrated property to the Alliance for Justice Foundation. The vernacular frame sanctuary exhibits Gothic Revival influences, with lancet windows and a gable end entry with a segmented glass arch. The building is flanked by what was the parish hall of St. James. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2004