DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. St. Matthew's Cathedral, Dallas County — pull up a chair, because this one goes back a long way.
We're talkin' roots sunk deep into the Texas soil, before Dallas was much more than a notion and a few planks of wood. The Rev. George Rottenstein held the very first Episcopal service in Dallas on May 25, 1856 — not in a proper church, mind you, not even close — in a storehouse.
A storehouse. Whatever goods those shelves once held, on that May afternoon they made room for something else entirely. And that was just the beginning.
The very next year, on St. Matthew's Day — September 21, 1857 — Rottenstein organized the parish itself. Named for the day.
And it has carried that name ever since. Then in 1860, the Rt. Rev.
Alexander Gregg, the first bishop of Texas, came to Dallas and conducted services in the Masonic Hall. No storehouse this time, but still not what you'd call a cathedral. That would take a little longer.
By 1870, the Rev. Silas Dean Davenport was leading the congregation, and they finally put up their first actual church building — a frame structure, standing at the corner of Elm and Lamar. Now, 1875 is where things get interesting.
The Rt. Rev. Alexander Charles Garrett, the first missionary bishop of North Texas, chose St.
Matthew's as his see church. Just like that, a parish church becomes a cathedral. Bishop Garrett had chosen his home, and the congregation kept right on growin'.
So much so that by 1877 they moved the whole operation to a new brick edifice over at Commerce and Kendall. Bigger. Grander.
And — wouldn't you know it — too small again before long. That's the thing about a story worth tellin': it doesn't stay put. So in 1895 — the very same year the Diocese of Dallas was created, not a coincidence the marker finds worth mentionin' together — the congregation occupied a stone cathedral at Ervay and Canton.
Stone, now. We've come a long way from that storehouse. Four years later, in 1899, that stone cathedral was consecrated — exactly twenty-five years after Bishop Garrett's own consecration.
The dean of the cathedral at that moment was the Rev. Hudson Stuck, a man the marker calls a benefactor of children. Some titles you earn, and that one carries weight.
Then comes the Very Rev. Harry Tunis Moore, who served as dean of St. Matthew's from 1907 to 1917.
When Bishop Garrett died in 1924, Moore stepped into the role of second bishop of Dallas. One era ends, another begins — that's how it goes in a parish that's been passin' the torch since 1857. In 1929, the congregation moved again — this time to the former St.
Mary's College Chapel, right here at this very site. And by 1976, that original six-member parish? Over thirteen hundred strong.
Six souls in a storehouse on a May afternoon in 1856. Thirteen hundred by 1976. Some things, you just gotta let the numbers tell the story.
What the marker says
The Rev. George Rottenstein held the first Episcopal service in Dallas in a storehouse on May 25, 1856, and organized this parish on St. Matthew's Day, Sept. 21, 1857. The Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg, first bishop of Texas, visited Dallas in 1860 and conducted services in the Masonic Hall. In 1870 the Rev. Silas Dean Davenport led the congregation in erecting its first church building, a frame structure at Elm and Lamar. St. Matthew's became a cathedral in 1875 when the Rt. Rev. Alexander Charles Garrett, the first missionary bishop of North Texas, chose it as his see church. The growing parish moved to a new brick edifice at Commerce and Kendall in 1877, but that soon became too small. A stone cathedral at Ervay and Canton was occupied in 1895, the year the Diocese of Dallas was created, and consecrated in 1899, just 25 years after Bishop Garrett's consecration. The Rev. Hudson Stuck, benefactor of children, was then dean of the cathedral. The very Rev. Harry Tunis Moore, dean of St. Matthew's in 1907-1917, became second bishop of Dallas when Bishop Garrett died in 1924. In 1929, the congregation moved to the former St. Mary's College Chapel, at this site. By 1976, the original six-member parish numbered over 1300.