Christ Episcopal Church
San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Episcopalians first worshipped in this Laurel Heights neighborhood in 1907, under the auspices of St. Mark's Church downtown. Christ Episcopal Church was formed in 1911, with the Rev. John D. Ridout as its first Rector. In 1913, ground was broken for this Gothic Revival sanctuary, designed by architect Atlee B. Ayres in the spirit of an English Parish Church. A parish hall and educational building was designed in1929 by architect John M. Marriot.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Episcopalians first gathered in San Antonio's Laurel Heights neighborhood in 1907 as a mission of a downtown parish, organizing as Christ Episcopal Church a few years later. In 1913 they broke ground on a Gothic Revival sanctuary designed by the noted Texas architect Atlee B. Ayres in the spirit of an English parish church, adding a parish and educational building in 1929. The buildings trace the growth of a fashionable early-twentieth-century San Antonio suburb.
Why it matters
The church reflects the confident expansion of American cities in the early 1900s, when prospering new neighborhoods commissioned architect-designed sanctuaries to give themselves permanence and identity.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- San Antonio Museum of Art1.3 mi away · 200 West Jones Avenue, San Antonio
- Visitor's Center Museum1.4 mi away
- Artpace1.5 mi away · 445 North Main Avenue, San Antonio, TX
- Buckhorn Saloon and Museum1.8 mi away
- Centro de Artes1.8 mi away
- Spanish Governor's Palace1.8 mi away
Attractions
- Scobee Planetarium0.4 mi away
- Terror Mansion0.7 mi away
- River boat boarding1.1 mi away
- Murchison Tower1.1 mi away
- Japanese Tea Garden1.4 mi away
- boat ride boarding1.5 mi away
Food & drink
- La Vida Coffee & Drinks1.8 mi away · 106 Jefferson Street
- Texas de Brazil1.8 mi away · 313 East Houston Street, San Antonio
- Voodoo Donut1.8 mi away
- Playland Pizza1.8 mi away
- Maddy McMurphy's Irish Sports Bar1.8 mi away · 420 East Houston Street, San Antonio, TX
- The Local Bar1.8 mi away
Places to stay
- Best Western Premier Historic Travelers Hotel Alamo/Riverwalk1.7 mi away
- The St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel, San Antonio1.7 mi away · 300 E Travis St, San Antonio, TX
- Sheraton Gunter Hotel San Antonio1.7 mi away · 205 East Houston Street, San Antonio, TX
- Home2 Suites by Hilton San Antonio Downtown - Riverwalk, TX1.7 mi away · 603 Navarro Street, San Antonio, TX
- Holiday Inn Riverwalk1.8 mi away · 217 North Saint Mary's Street, San Antonio, TX
- Hotel Gibbs Downtown San Antonio Riverwalk1.8 mi away
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Rev. John D. Ridout
- · Atlee B. Ayres
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
St. Anthony Catholic School
San Antonio, TX
In 1907, families in San Antonio's Laurel Heights neighborhood asked the Sisters of the Divine Providence, a French teaching order, to open a school; the sisters bought land and taught in rented houses while a permanent home was planned. Architect Frederick Gaenslen designed the eight-classroom, buff-brick Classical Revival building completed in 1909, crowned by a niche holding a statue of St. Anthony. When closure loomed in the 1980s, parents and alumni organized to buy the property and keep the doors open, and the school still operates more than a century on.
Madison Square Presbyterian Church
San Antonio, TX
Presbyterian missionary William Buchanan arrived in San Antonio in 1881 and, drawing on the city's military and northern-born community, organized Madison Square Presbyterian Church in early 1882 in what was then the outlying "Upper San Antonio." A rusticated Gothic Revival stone church rose in 1883, was wrecked by an 1886 windstorm, and was rebuilt by 1895. In 1942 the congregation helped bring Trinity University to San Antonio.
Central Catholic High School
San Antonio, TX
When San Antonio had no boys' school at all, Bishop Jean-Marie Odin recruited teachers from the Society of Mary in France, and on August 26, 1852, they opened a school in two rooms over a livery stable near San Fernando Cathedral. Relocated to a riverside campus as "St. Mary's Institute" in 1853, it finished the year with a hundred pupils of Anglo, French, German, and Mexican descent, day students and ranch-boy boarders alike. From that pioneer effort grew St. Mary's University, and in 1932 Central Catholic High School became the successor, now the oldest and largest private boys' school in Texas.
Maverick-Carter House
San Antonio, TX
Built in 1893 for real-estate developer William Harvey Maverick—son of Texas Declaration of Independence signer Samuel Maverick—this three-story limestone mansion rose on the banks of the San Antonio River and was designed by the prominent architect Alfred Giles. In 1914 it passed to attorney H.C. Carter, whose wife Aline added a rooftop observatory and a chapel and served as Texas poet laureate from 1947 to 1949. A noted astronomer and artist, she taught the stars to local children and hosted Christmas parties for San Antonio orphans here.