Third Church of Christ, Scientist

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, by 1922, the First Church of Christ, Scientist, down in Houston had grown — grown enough that a new congregation split off from it, an offshoot ready to put down roots of its own. And when it came time to build a proper home for that congregation, they turned to J.

Rodney Tabor of the Jonas and Tabor architectural firm. Tabor had a vision, and that vision was Mediterranean. We're talkin' arched windows catching the Texas light, a tile roof baking in the sun, stuccoed walls smooth as a sermon, and — here's the detail that'll stop you in your tracks — an octagonal tower rising up over the South Main area like it had every right to be there.

Which, as it turns out, it did. The structure was completed in 1928, and it wasn't alone. It was among the last of a whole number of Mediterranean-style buildings going up along that newly developing Almeda Road corridor, each one laid down like a deliberate stitch in the fabric of a neighborhood still figuring out who it was going to be.

They were building history and place into the very architecture, one arched window at a time. Then, a generation later, in 1953, they added a Sunday school — and whoever made that call deserves some credit, because they didn't cut corners. That addition followed the same style, the same tile, the same stucco, the same patient Mediterranean spirit.

The whole thing holds together like a story that knew its own ending. Some buildings just stand there. This one belongs.

What the marker says

Intended to serve the congregation that had been organized as an offshoot of the growing First Church of Christ, Scientist, in 1922, this structure was designed by J. Rodney Tabor of the Jonas and Tabor architectural firm. Completed in 1928, this structure is among the last of a number of Mediterranean-style buildings erected in the South Main area to lend a sense of history and place to the newly developing Almeda Road corridor. The edifice is noteworthy for its octagonal tower, arched windows, tile roof and stuccoed walls. The Sunday school addition erected in 1953 follows the same style. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1999