First United Methodist Church of Austin
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1840, shortly after Austin was incorporated, the Rev.John Haynie (1786-1860), a Methodist circuit rider from the Mississippi Conference, led 14 members in forming this fellowship. They worshiped at temporary sites, including the Capitol building of Republic of Texas. In 1847 they completed their first church building, a wooden structure on Congress Avenue and 4th Street, during the pastorate of the Rev. Homer S. Thrall (1819-1894 ), circuit rider and well-known author of Texas and Methodist history. Doctors met in the original building in 1853 to from the Texas Medical Association. In 1854, under the Rev. John W. Phillips ( 1821-1891 ), the original church was sold and a new brick edifice built at Brazos and 10th Street. In 1884 Dr. A. E.Goodwyn (1818-1902) led construction of a larger building at that site. For a time this congregation was called Tenth Street Methodist Church. The members bought the present property in 1921 and built this Neo-Classical structure. Pastors instrumental in building and improving the present church facility include Dr. Edward R. Barcus (1872-1958), Dr. W. F. Bryan (1872-1965) , Dr. Marvin S. Vance (1905-1966) and Dr. Robert S. Tate, Jr. (1914-1976). As Austin's second oldest Protestant congregation this fellowship has made significant contributions to the state's history. (1978)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1840, only a year after Austin was laid out as capital of the young Republic of Texas, a Methodist circuit rider named John Haynie gathered fourteen members into a fellowship that first worshiped in temporary quarters — including the Republic's own Capitol building. The congregation built a wooden church on Congress Avenue in 1847, later a brick edifice at Brazos and 10th, and finally the Neo-Classical structure on the present property purchased in 1921. In 1853 doctors meeting in its original building organized the Texas Medical Association.
Why it matters
As Austin's second-oldest Protestant congregation, the church traces the city's growth from a frontier capital of an independent republic into a permanent seat of Texas civic and religious life.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1840, Austin was brand new and barely real. It had just been laid out as the capital of the Republic of Texas — an independent nation, not yet a state — and the little town on the Colorado River was more ambition than city. Government business was conducted in rough quarters, the frontier pressed close on every side, and permanence was something to be hoped for rather than assumed.
Religion on that kind of frontier traveled on horseback. Methodism in particular spread through 'circuit riders,' preachers who covered vast territories on their own, gathering scattered believers into congregations wherever a handful could be found. It was demanding, often lonely work, and it planted many of the first churches in new American communities.
A fellowship founded in Austin in that first year, then, was being founded in the capital of a struggling republic, by people who could not yet be sure the town — or the country — would last. That uncertainty is the backdrop against which this congregation's long survival should be read.
People & events
The Rev. John Haynie, a Methodist circuit rider from the Mississippi Conference, gathered fourteen members into this fellowship in 1840. Having no building of their own, they worshiped wherever they could — including, tellingly, the Capitol building of the Republic of Texas itself. Church and state shared a roof out of simple necessity.
A permanent home came in 1847, a wooden church on Congress Avenue at 4th Street, built during the pastorate of the Rev. Homer S. Thrall, himself a circuit rider and a well-known author of Texas and Methodist history. The building quickly became more than a place of Sunday worship: in 1853, doctors meeting inside it organized the Texas Medical Association, one of many civic institutions that were born under church rafters because churches were among the few gathering places a young town had.
Growth kept the congregation moving. In 1854, under the Rev. John W. Phillips, they sold the original church and built a brick edifice at Brazos and 10th Street; in 1884, Dr. A. E. Goodwyn led construction of a still larger building on that site, and for a time the congregation was known as Tenth Street Methodist Church. Finally, in 1921, the members bought the present property and raised the Neo-Classical structure that stands today — a physical record of a community outgrowing itself again and again.
Its place in the American story
The story of this congregation is, in miniature, the story of how the American frontier settled down. The circuit rider who arrived to preach to fourteen people was part of a movement that carried organized religion across the expanding country, often reaching new communities before almost any other institution did. Where the preacher went, a town's sense of permanence tended to follow.
That a medical association could be founded inside a church building points to something larger, too. In a young capital short on public halls, the church was civic infrastructure — a place where a community's professional and public life could take root, not just its spiritual life. The line between founding a congregation and founding a city was genuinely blurred.
As Austin's second-oldest Protestant congregation, this fellowship traces the arc from a frontier outpost of an independent republic to the permanent seat of a great state. Its succession of ever-grander buildings is a quiet ledger of that transformation, written in wood, brick, and finally stone.
If you visit
You will find this a downtown church, its Neo-Classical lines announcing the confidence of the 1920s congregation that built it. Take a moment to notice that the building you are looking at is the newest link in a very long chain — the fourth or fifth home, not the first, of a fellowship older than the state of Texas.
To really feel the history, look past the present structure toward the streets nearby. The earlier churches stood on Congress Avenue and at Brazos and 10th, close to the heart of the capital, and the very first worship happened in the Republic's Capitol. The congregation has essentially grown up alongside the seat of government it started beside.
If you are walking historic downtown Austin, let this marker slow you down. It rewards the traveler who enjoys imagining a place backward in time — from a settled state capital, to a raw republican town, to fourteen people and a circuit-riding preacher with no building at all.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · John Haynie
- · Homer S. Thrall
- · John W. Phillips
Related events
- · Founding of the Texas Medical Association (1853)
Themes & tags
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