Zion Hill First Baptist Church

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how Duane tells it back to you. Somewhere in Nacogdoches County, if you know where to look, there's a church that started with nothing but open sky and a man with a calling. The Reverend Lawson Reed organized this black Baptist congregation in 1879, and the first worship services were held under a brush arbor.

No walls, no roof to speak of. Just the congregation, the reverend, and whatever shade those branches could offer. That's where Zion Hill First Baptist Church began.

By the time the congregation raised their third church building, in 1914, they were doing things right. The land itself was purchased from a man named John Schmidt, and for the design, they turned to someone whose eye for beauty was already well known across the region. Dietrich Antone Wilhelm Rulfs, a German-born architect, born in 1848 and gone from this world in 1926, was noted enough that his name carried weight.

What he gave this congregation was something worth noting. Victorian styling, Gothic Revival detailing, the two working together in a single structure on land that a community had bled and prayed and built toward across decades. Think about that progression.

A brush arbor. A first building. A second.

And then this, the third, designed by a noted architect and standing in Nacogdoches County as a testament to a congregation that never stopped reaching. Reverend Reed planted the seed in 1879. The building that stands today answers the question of how far that seed grew.

What the marker says

The Rev. Lawson Reed organized this black Baptist congregation in 1879 and led the first worship services under a brush arbor. This structure, erected in 1914 on land purchased from John Schmidt, was the third church building occupied by the membership. Designed by the noted German-born architect Dietrich Antone Wilhelm Rulfs (1848-1926), it combines Victorian styling with Gothic Revival detailing. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977