Highland Park Methodist Church

🏛️The era

Highland Park Methodist Church was born in a moment of fresh beginnings in Dallas. Southern Methodist University had just opened its doors in 1915 on open land north of the city. Nearby, the new suburb of Highland Park, a planned community of wide streets and handsome homes, was attracting families who wanted space and quiet close to a growing city.

The congregation belonged to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the branch of American Methodism that had separated from its northern counterpart in 1844, largely over slavery. The two branches would not reunite until 1939. In the early twentieth century, the southern church was investing heavily in higher education, and SMU was one of its most ambitious projects.

Nationally, the years after World War I brought rapid suburban growth, and the decades after World War II brought even more. Churches in fast-growing suburbs often found themselves racing to keep up with new members. That pattern is written plainly into this congregation's history.

👥People & events

The church started in February 1916 as the University Church. Its first members came from SMU itself, faculty and students worshiping together on a brand-new campus. Methodist Bishop Edwin D. Mouzon appointed the Rev. A. Frank Smith as the first pastor. Smith would go on to become a prominent Methodist leader in his own right, later serving as a bishop.

The congregation soon grew beyond the campus. Methodist families from the new suburb of Highland Park transferred their memberships and brought added support and leadership. The church took a new name to match: Highland Park Methodist Episcopal Church, South. By the end of its first year, the charter roll listed 225 members.

SMU donated land for the church in 1916, and in 1917 the congregation put up a temporary building known affectionately as the Little Brown Church. The next step required some legal housekeeping. In 1923 the town of Highland Park annexed the church property, and that formality cleared the way for a permanent home. In 1926 the congregation built a Gothic Revival sanctuary, with the soaring, pointed-arch style that American churches and universities of the era often chose to evoke the great medieval cathedrals and colleges of Europe.

Growth kept coming. Between 1950 and 1961, the church added three new buildings to its main campus, and by 1995 its membership had passed 10,500. Throughout, the congregation has kept up the commitment to community service and international missions noted on the marker.

🇺🇸Its place in the American story

This church's story neatly ties together three major threads of twentieth-century American life: the growth of church-founded universities, the rise of the suburb, and the power of mainline Protestant congregations as centers of community life.

Many American colleges were founded by religious denominations, and churches often grew up beside them, serving students, faculty and the neighborhoods that formed around campus. Here a congregation born inside a university grew into one of the largest Methodist churches in the country. That shows how closely faith and higher education could be woven together.

The church's explosive growth after World War II mirrors the national suburban boom, when millions of American families moved into new neighborhoods and filled their churches to overflowing. Congregations like this one became institutions in their own right, running schools, missions and service programs that reached well beyond their own walls.

🧭If you visit

The church stands beside the Southern Methodist University campus, and the setting is part of the story. As you approach, notice the Gothic Revival sanctuary, with its pointed arches, vertical lines and stonework that reach for a sense of the timeless. It was designed to feel ancient even though it was built in the 1920s.

This is an active and busy congregation, so be respectful of services and events. If you plan to go inside, check ahead with the church about when visitors are welcome. The exterior and the surrounding streetscape are worth a slow look on their own.

A visit pairs naturally with a stroll across the SMU campus and a drive through Highland Park's tree-lined residential streets. Together they give you a vivid picture of the university and suburb that grew up alongside this church in the early twentieth century.