St. John's United Methodist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. Way back before Texas was even a republic with its boots fully laced, Methodist missionaries were already working the Richmond area. Eighteen twenty-four, friends.

That is early. But the congregation you're looking at right now, St. John's United Methodist Church, didn't get formally organized until January 22, 1839, when the Reverend Jesse Hord brought it all together.

And the people who showed up for those early gatherings? Some of them were members of Stephen F. Austin's famous "Old 300" colonists.

The very people who helped settle this land were sitting in those pews. That is not nothing. Now, a congregation that old, that storied, eventually deserves a building worthy of its history.

So in 1922, they built it. A red brick sanctuary, designed by C. N.

Nelson of Houston. Nelson did not phone it in, either. He gave them Gothic revival architecture, white terra cotta trim, and modified Tudor Gothic arches.

The kind of building that makes you slow down when you drive past it, maybe roll the window down a little. There's something about a church that's been gathering people since eighteen thirty-nine that earns its bricks. Some stories don't need embellishment.

They just need time.

What the marker says

While Methodist missionaries had served the Richmond area as early as 1824, this congregation was organized January 22, 1839, by the Rev. Jesse Hord. Early members included some of Stephen F. Austin's "Old 300" colonists. The congregation built this red brick sanctuary in 1922. Designed by C. N. Nelson of Houston, the Gothic revival building features white terra cotta trim and modified Tudor Gothic arches. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983