St. Stephen's Episcopal Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'll tell it to you. Some buildings just have miles in 'em. This little frame church, the one you're lookin' at right now, started its life fifty-four miles to the northwest, out at Pecos, back in 1896.

That's where it was originally constructed, and that's where it served the congregation of St. Mark's Episcopal Church. Late Victorian styling, the marker says, and you can see it, that careful craftsmanship from an era when folks built things to last.

And last it did. For decades, it stood right there in Pecos. Then 1958 rolled around, and something remarkable happened.

The building was sold to members of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of Fort Stockton, and they did not leave it behind. They moved it.

The whole church, picked up and carried fifty-four miles across West Texas to this very site. Now the land it sits on, that was donated by a Dr. D.J.

Sibley, and without that gift of property, the whole story ends differently. Inside, the furnishings have their own quiet dignity. Among them, a cross of solid ebony.

No gilding, no ornamentation beyond the wood itself, dark and enduring. A church built in 1896, moved in 1958, standing here still. Some things, it turns out, are worth the trouble of movin'.

What the marker says

Originally constructed at Pecos (54 mi. NW) in 1896, this building served the congregation of St. Mark's Episcopal Church. In 1958 it was sold to members of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church of Fort Stockton and moved to this site. Located on property donated by Dr. D.J. Sibley, the frame church building reflects styling of the late Victorian period. Interior furnishings include a cross of solid ebony. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1966.