HistoricSiteMarkers
Reconstruction & Gilded Age

Saint John's Evangelical and Reform Church

Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas

Marker Inscription

A United Church of Christ, this congregation was chartered October 1882 under the direction of the Rev. F. Werning, a pioneer missionary from Waco. It grew from early worship services in the home of Mr. and Mrs. H. Raab, conducted for twelve families of German descent. The Church's original sancturary was built on Calhoun Street, but was moved to the corner of Texas and Taylor streets before being relocated here in 1915. For over a century St. John's Evangelical and Reformed Church has played in an important role in the area's development.

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

Chartered in October 1882 under pioneer missionary the Rev. F. Werning, this congregation grew from worship services held in the Raab family home for twelve German immigrant families in early Fort Worth. Its original sanctuary on Calhoun Street was moved twice before settling at this location in 1915. Now part of the United Church of Christ, St. John's has served the community for well over a century.

Why it matters

The church reflects the German immigrant communities that helped build North Texas cities, worshiping in their own language and traditions as they put down roots.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Rev. F. Werning

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

The Sanctuary - Gustavaus Adolphus Church

Fort Worth, TX

In 1905, Swedish immigrants drawn to booming Fort Worth organized a Lutheran congregation of the Gustavus Adolphus Synod to worship in their own language and traditions. In 1912 they raised this Lombard Romanesque sanctuary, its tower and arches showing off fine brickwork, and gathered here for nearly half a century before the congregation—by then known as Grace Lutheran—moved on in 1957. The building stands as a relic of a distinct Scandinavian community woven into an otherwise Anglo and German Texas city.

Laneri House

Fort Worth, TX

Italian immigrant John B. Laneri settled in Fort Worth in 1883 and rose to become a leading businessman and civic figure, founding the O.B. Macaroni Company and a private boys' school known as Laneri College. In 1904 he built this classically detailed brick home, with fine interior woodwork, in one of the city's most fashionable neighborhoods, living there until his death in 1935.

Beth-el Congregation

Fort Worth, TX

Reform Jewish life in Fort Worth began in 1879 with a Hebrew Benevolent Society Sabbath school and home services, gaining momentum around 1900 under Henry Gernsbacher. In 1902 forty-three people gathered to found Beth-El Congregation, electing Sam Levy president, and after years of borrowed rooms and visiting student rabbis they built a temple in 1908 and a larger one on this site in 1919. Fire destroyed that building in 1946, and the rebuilt Beth-El Temple was dedicated in 1949.

Saint Paul Lutheran Church

Fort Worth, TX

In 1892 the Rev. Johann Christian Schulenburg, a Missouri Synod missionary, began preaching in German at a downtown Fort Worth hall, gathering the German-speaking Lutherans of the growing city. Chartered in 1896 as the Evangelisch Lutherische St. Paulus Gemeinde, the congregation raised a chapel, then a larger church on May Street in 1919, and finally relocated to the West Freeway in 1954 as its membership swelled.