Shepherd Drive Methodist Church
Conroe, Montgomery County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1899 a group of Methodists from this area, known then as the Brunner Addition, met in a building known as McClure's Assembly Hall and organized the McAshan and City Mission Methodist Church. A sanctuary, built on this block in 1900, was destroyed by a severe storm that year. A new sanctuary was completed in 1901. The church was renamed McAshan and Brunner Methodist in 1904, Brunner Methodist in 1906 and Brunner and Epworth Methodist in 1913. When construction of a new church building began in 1917, it became known as West End Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The church acquired additional land here in 1940 which included a parsonage and provided a full block of frontage on Shepherd Drive. By 1942 the congregation was known as the Shepherd Drive Methodist Church. In 1954-55 a new church building containing 17 classrooms, a sanctuary, and a fellowship hall was built at this site. In 1959 Shepherd Drive Methodist Church merged with the Larkin Street Methodist Church, a nearby congregation organized in 1916. This congregation continues its traditional spiritual programs, support of youth and senior outreach programs, promotion of community gatherings, and involvement in civic and social issues affecting the area. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845 - 1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This Methodist congregation began in 1899 among the residents of Houston's Brunner Addition, meeting first in a hall before building a sanctuary that a storm promptly destroyed. Rebuilt and renamed repeatedly over the decades—McAshan, Brunner, West End, and finally Shepherd Drive—the church tracked the neighborhood's growth into the twentieth century. By the 1950s it had expanded into a large building with classrooms, a sanctuary, and a fellowship hall, and in 1959 it absorbed a neighboring congregation.
Why it matters
Its many name changes chart the westward growth of Houston, showing how a single congregation can mirror a city expanding around it.
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Themes & tags
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