Lane Chapel C.M.E. Church
Lewisville, Denton County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Anthony Hembry and six charter members, all former slaves, organized Lewisville Colored Methodist Episcopal (C. M. E.) Church in 1882. Lewisville had the largest African American population in Denton County and this church, called Lane Chapel after 1902 for Bishop Isaac Lane, was a significant social center. Other C. M. E. churches formed with the encouragement of this congregation. As rural Americans migrated to larger cities in the 1920s-1940s, the black population of Lewisville diminished and church membership dwindled. The church survived the late 20th century through donations and funds from other C. M. E. churches and the devotion of Lane Chapel members. A strong ministry in the 1990s led to a revival for Lane Chapel, and by the beginning of the 21st century membership had increased. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1882 Anthony Hembry and six charter members—all formerly enslaved—organized this Colored Methodist Episcopal congregation in Lewisville, then home to Denton County's largest African American population. Renamed Lane Chapel in 1902 for Bishop Isaac Lane, the church became a vital social anchor and helped spawn other C.M.E. congregations. As Black residents left for the cities during the Great Migration of the 1920s–40s, membership shrank, but the devotion of its members and support from sister churches carried Lane Chapel to a revival by the new century.
Why it matters
Lane Chapel embodies the churches that freedpeople built after emancipation as centers of worship, community, and mutual support—and the resilience of Black institutions through the Great Migration.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
Lane Chapel C.M.E. Church rose out of one of the most consequential moments in American history: the years just after emancipation, when four million formerly enslaved people set about building free lives. In the Reconstruction and Gilded Age South, one of the very first things freedpeople did with their freedom was to build churches of their own — independent, self-governed, and answerable to no former master.
When this congregation organized in 1882, Lewisville was home to the largest African American population in Denton County. That concentration made a Black church not just a place of Sunday worship but a genuine center of gravity for the whole community — a place for education, mutual aid, celebration, and organizing in a segregated world that offered Black Texans few other institutions they could truly call their own.
The Colored Methodist Episcopal denomination itself was a product of this era, formed by Black Methodists in the South who wanted their own church governance after the Civil War. A local congregation like this one was a branch of that broader movement toward Black religious self-determination.
People & events
The founding belongs to Anthony Hembry and six charter members — all of them formerly enslaved. That detail is the heart of the story: people who had themselves been held in bondage now gathered as free men and women to establish an institution that would outlast them. In 1902 the congregation took the name Lane Chapel, honoring Bishop Isaac Lane, a leading figure in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church.
From its earliest days the church was more than a sanctuary; it was a social anchor, and its influence rippled outward as it encouraged the formation of other C.M.E. congregations in the region. That role as a mother church — helping to seed sister congregations — speaks to how vital and generative these Black religious communities were.
Then came a long test. As rural Americans streamed toward the cities during the Great Migration of the 1920s through the 1940s, Lewisville's Black population thinned and church membership dwindled. Lane Chapel survived those lean decades through the devotion of its remaining members and the support of other C.M.E. churches. A strong ministry in the 1990s finally brought a revival, and by the turn of the 21st century the congregation's numbers were rising again.
Its place in the American story
Lane Chapel embodies one of the defining achievements of Black America after slavery: the creation of independent churches that served as the backbone of community life. Across the country, congregations like this one were where freedpeople worshiped freely, educated their children, cared for the sick and the grieving, and built leadership — often the only institutions fully controlled by Black communities in a hostile, segregated society.
The church's decline during the Great Migration ties it directly to one of the largest internal movements of people in American history. Millions of African Americans left the rural South for cities in search of work, dignity, and safety, and the congregations they left behind felt that exodus in empty pews. Lane Chapel's shrinking membership is the local echo of a national transformation.
But its survival and revival tell an equally important American story — the resilience of Black institutions that refused to disappear. That sister C.M.E. churches sustained Lane Chapel through its hardest years shows the mutual support networks that carried Black religious life across generations of upheaval.
If you visit
A visit to Lane Chapel C.M.E. Church in Lewisville is a chance to stand where formerly enslaved people built something enduring with their newfound freedom. Approach it with the respect owed to a place of worship that has served its community, in one form or another, for well over a century.
As you take in the site, hold two timelines in mind at once: the founding by seven people just a generation removed from slavery, and the long arc that followed — a thriving community center, decades of decline as families moved to the cities, and a hard-won revival. Few places let you feel the full sweep of post-emancipation Black history so directly.
Lewisville today is a busy part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, which makes the church's deep roots all the more striking against the modern surroundings. Make it a thoughtful stop on a trip exploring the region's African American heritage, and take a moment to consider the faith and persistence it took to keep this congregation's doors open through more than a hundred years of change.
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
- · Anthony Hembry
- · Bishop Isaac Lane
Related events
- · Great Migration
Themes & tags
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