Saint Matthew's Episcopal Church
Kenedy, Karnes County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Episcopal worship services were held in Kenedy as early as 1899, though the congregation of St. Matthew's was not organized as a mission until 1913, by the Rev. Alfred R. S. Garden. Designed by Frank Corby, this was the only Episcopal church in the county when completed in 1916. The Gothic Revival style structure, in a Latin cross plan, features tall, narrow, pointed-arch windows, fabricated buttresses, and a side entry bay narthex. A crenelated tower was rebuilt with a gabled roof following damage in a 1942 hurricane. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark -1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Episcopalians in Kenedy gathered for worship as early as 1899, though their St. Matthew's mission was not formally organized until 1913. Designed by Frank Corby and completed in 1916 as the county's only Episcopal church, the Gothic Revival building in a Latin-cross plan features tall pointed-arch windows and buttresses; its tower, damaged in a 1942 hurricane, was rebuilt with a gabled roof.
Why it matters
It records the growth of religious and civic life in a South Texas railroad town and preserves a fine example of small-town Gothic Revival church architecture.
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Related people
- · Alfred R. S. Garden
- · Frank Corby
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Butler Family Cemetery
Kenedy, TX
This cemetery began as part of the homestead of William Green and Adeline Burris Butler, a ranching family that migrated to Texas before the Civil War and built holdings across five South Texas counties. The first burial was their 20-year-old son Emmett, killed in December 1884. Among its roughly 40 graves are relatives reinterred from other sites, and the family cemetery is still maintained through a trust.
First Baptist Church of Karnes City
Karnes City, TX
This congregation began as a mission church in 1894, the same year Karnes City was founded as the new county seat. Early worshipers likely met in the schoolhouse before the first church rose in 1899, and baptisms were held in the San Antonio River or a ranch stock tank. As it grew, the church added a missionary society, Sunday school, youth groups, and even a long-running radio program, and helped plant other mission churches nearby.
Karnes City
Karnes City, TX
Founded in the Christmas season of 1890 when Otto Buchel's partnership bought 1,000 acres beside the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad, the town was first named for Texas Ranger hero Henry W. Karnes before 'City' was added with its 1891 post office. It grew so fast that by 1894 voters moved the county seat here from Helena. In its railroad heyday six passenger trains a day rolled through a town built on ranching, farming, uranium, oil, and gas.
First Presbyterian Church
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Karnes City's first building raised for Protestant worship housed a congregation that began in 1894 as a mission under the Helena Presbyterians and was organized the next year with fourteen members. The Rev. H. R. Laird, an evangelist of the Western Texas Presbytery, led its founding, and the church building was finished in June 1901. The congregation marked its 75th anniversary in 1970.