DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Way back in 1873, out in what folks called Freedman's Town — a community of recently freed people sitting just north of the Dallas city limits — a handful of inhabitants gathered under a brush arbor. No grand hall, no steeple, no pews.
Just open sky and the shade of branches. They were meeting with two Methodist ministers, Rev. H.
Oliver and Rev. William Bush, and what they were doing under that arbor was organizing the very first African American Methodist Episcopal Church in the area. Rev.
Oliver became St. Paul's first pastor. Now, they needed land, and Dallas postmaster Anthony Norton stepped up and donated the first church site.
The congregation built a small frame sanctuary there — and that building pulled double duty, serving also as a school for African American children. The church partnered with the Perkins School of Theology to provide training for African American ministers. And Samuel Huston College — the institution that would later become Huston-Tillotson University — was organized in 1876 and held its very first classes right there at St.
Paul. Let that sit with you a moment. First classes.
Right there. Then comes 1901, and the congregation sets its sights on something bigger — a new brick-clad sanctuary. Now here's where the story gets something special about it.
They started not from the top down but from the ground up, literally, digging and finishing a concrete basement. They called that basement Noah's Ark. And in Noah's Ark, they held services for twenty-six years while the sanctuary above them slowly, fitfully took shape — construction moving forward only as materials became available.
Parishioners, tradition holds, brought bricks as part of their offering. And because those bricks came in over many years, from many hands, the façade ended up with five different shades of brown brick. Five shades.
You can see the history of the congregation written right into the wall. Finally, in 1927, under the leadership of Pastor George Deslandes, the sanctuary was completed. The total cost came to eighty thousand dollars.
The gothic revival style was derived from a design by William Sidney Pittman — Dallas' first African American architect. Around 1950, highway construction began to demolish the north Dallas neighborhoods that St. Paul had long served.
The community around the church was torn away. But St. Paul endured — as a political center, a cultural center, a spiritual center — under the leadership of Pastor I.B.
Loud, who led from 1948 to 1980, and the successors who carried that work forward. What started under a brush arbor in Freedman's Town outlasted highways and decades and every force that came against it. Five shades of brick, and every one of them earned.
What the marker says
In 1873, several inhabitants of Freedman's Town, a community of recently freed people just north of the Dallas city limits, met with Methodist ministers Rev. H. Oliver and Rev. William Bush under a brush arbor to organize the area's first African American Methodist Episcopal Church. Oliver became St. Paul's first pastor. Dallas postmaster Anthony Norton donated the first church site upon which the congregation built a small frame sanctuary, which was also used as a school for African American children. In partnership with the Perkins School of Theology, the church provided training for African American ministers. Samuel Huston College (later Huston-Tillotson University), organized in 1876, held its first classes at the church. In 1901, the congregation began constructing a new brick-clad sanctuary by digging and finishing a concrete basement, called "Noah's Ark," where services were held during the 26 years it took to complete the sanctuary. Construction proceeded fitfully as material became available. Tradition holds that the fa��ade has five different shades of brown brick because, for many years, parishioners brought bricks for the offering. Finally completed in 1927 under the leadership of Pastor George Deslandes, the sanctuary cost $80,000. The gothic revival style was derived from a design by William Sidney Pittman, Dallas' first African American architect. Although around 1950 highway construction began to demolish the north Dallas neighborhoods served by the church, St. Paul endured as a political, cultural and spiritual center under the leadership of Pastor I.B. Loud (1948-1980) and his successors. (2013)