San Felipe United Methodist Church
San Felipe, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1837, the town of San Felipe de Austin was incorporated and the town council built a multi-purpose building to be used as a town hall, school, and church on land known as “Constitution Square.” The one-story building was constructed out of Cypress, an extremely long-lasting and rot-resistant wood that allowed the structure to exist today, over 175 years later. The Methodist group in San Felipe de Austin used this building for evening worship though the building was secularly owned by the town. By 1847, a new town hall was constructed, leaving this building to serve as a church and school only. In this same year, the town also added the second floor to the building. A new masonic lodge formed in San Felipe in 1859 and met on the newly built second floor. Today the ceiling still exhibits a painting of a blue sky with five-pointed stars and on the eastern wall an ‘eye of god’ painting. In 1880, a new school building was constructed for the town, allowing the first floor of this building to be used solely as a church. In 1883, a steeple was added and a bell was donated to the church. This building became the Methodists’ official church and the congregation still meets here today. Up until the 1940s, when the building got electricity, the church used oil lamps hung on the walls of the sanctuary for indoor worship. These lamps are still hanging today and are lit every Christmas Eve in remembrance of the church’s history. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After San Felipe de Austin—the capital of Stephen F. Austin's colony—was incorporated in 1837, the town built a multi-purpose cypress building on Constitution Square to serve as town hall, school, and church. Methodists worshipped there by evening, a second floor added in 1847 hosted a Masonic lodge whose painted "eye of God" ceiling survives, and by 1880 the structure became a dedicated church with a steeple and bell. The congregation still meets here and lights its historic oil lamps each Christmas Eve.
Why it matters
The building is a rare survivor of San Felipe de Austin, the birthplace of Anglo-American colonization in Texas, and traces how one frontier structure served civic, educational, and religious life.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
San Felipe de Austin is where Anglo-American Texas got its start. Stephen F. Austin founded the town in the 1820s as the headquarters of his colony while Texas was still part of Mexico. For about a decade it was the political and social center of the Anglo settlements. Colonists gathered here to debate their future, and the meetings held here in the 1830s helped lead to the Texas Revolution.
The town paid for that role. In the spring of 1836, as Mexican forces moved east, settlers fled in what became known as the Runaway Scrape, and San Felipe was burned rather than left for the advancing army. After Texas won independence at San Jacinto, the town never got back its old importance. The capital and the region's attention moved elsewhere.
Still, people came back and rebuilt. In 1837 the town was incorporated under the new Republic of Texas, and its leaders set about rebuilding community life. A frontier town with little money couldn't afford separate buildings for government, school, and worship, so many shared one building. That's how this structure started.
People & events
After incorporation in 1837, the town council built one building on land known as Constitution Square to serve as town hall, schoolhouse, and church. The builders used cypress, a wood known for resisting rot and insects. That choice is the main reason the building has lasted for nearly two centuries.
The local Methodists held evening services here, even though the town owned the building. Methodism spread across the American frontier partly because its circuit-riding preachers were willing to preach wherever people gathered, and a shared town hall suited them fine. By 1847 the town had built a new town hall, so this building became a church and school, and a second story was added that same year.
That upper floor got a new use in 1859, when a newly formed Masonic lodge started meeting there. The lodge left behind something remarkable: a ceiling painted as a blue sky full of five-pointed stars, and an "eye of God" painted on the eastern wall. In 1880 a separate schoolhouse was built, and the ground floor became only a church. A steeple went up in 1883, a bell was donated, and the building became the Methodists' official home. Their congregation still worships here today.
Its place in the American story
Very little physical evidence survives from the earliest years of Anglo-American Texas, because San Felipe itself was burned during the Revolution. A building that went up right after independence and is still in use is a rare, tangible link to the period when Texas was an independent republic and then became a state.
The building also shows how frontier communities across America actually got by. Before towns could afford separate courthouses, schools, and churches, one sturdy room often served all three. Town meetings, lessons, and worship all happened under the same roof. You can follow this building's history step by step: civic hall, school and church, Masonic lodge upstairs, and finally a church on its own.
The congregation's survival matters too. Churches like this one helped hold small American towns together long after the town's political importance was gone. Each Christmas Eve the congregation lights its old oil lamps, keeping a living tradition alive on ground tied to the beginnings of Texas.
If you visit
Approach slowly and look at the building itself first. This is cypress that has stood for more than 175 years, and the steeple added in 1883 marks when the building finally became just a church. If you get a chance to see inside, look up. The painted sky with its stars and the all-seeing eye on the east wall are remnants of the Masonic lodge that met upstairs.
Notice the oil lamps on the sanctuary walls too. The church used them for light until electricity arrived in the 1940s, and they are still lit every Christmas Eve. This is an active congregation, so be respectful of services and private gatherings, and enjoy the outside if the doors are closed.
San Felipe is an essential stop for anyone following the story of early Texas. The surrounding area preserves the memory of Austin's colonial capital, and the nearby Brazos River was the route that brought many of the first settlers in. Pair this church with the historic sites devoted to the old colony and you'll come away with a real sense of where Texas as we know it began.
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
- · Stephen F. Austin
Themes & tags
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