St. John's United Methodist Church
Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Established in 1939, St. John's was at first announced by Methodist Bishop Ivan Lee Holt to be located one mile south of campus to serve faculty and students of Texas Technological College. Several methodist faculty members, encouraged by Sallie Maud Horn, widow of Texas Tech’s first president Paul W. Horn, petitioned for a site, closer to campus. The bishop agreed and work began to find a temporary site for church gatherings.Preston Smith, a charter member of the new church and later Governor of Texas, was approached about lending the Tech Theater, a motion picture theater, for worship services. The Rev. R. Luther Kirk was appointed to lead "the church that was not," and the first service was held at the theater on December 10, 1939. St. John's continued to meet in the Tech Theater or occasionally in Seaman Hall, the Episcopal Student Center, until September 15, 1940, when services were first held in the new church building at 14th and Avenue X. Soon after, the congregation required more space and a new sanctuary was built in 1952 on University Avenue.With a slogan of "Open Hearts, Open Arms, Open Minds," St. John's has been a congregation with a tremendous sense of civic responsibility and deep concern for those in need. Activities and Programs have included assisting migrant workers in the 1950s and 60s with child care at the Migrant Day Center, making health kits, providing health screening clinics for the community in the 1960s and 70s, and numerous mission trips. Since the 1970s, the St. John's/St. Paul's Benevolence Program has focused on feeding the hungry. Imbued with a "loving energy," St. John's will continue to meet challenges with a spiritual and social conscience.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1939 to serve the faculty and students of Texas Technological College, St. John's held its first services in a borrowed motion-picture theater, the Tech Theater, lent by charter member and future Texas governor Preston Smith. Guided by the Rev. R. Luther Kirk, "the church that was not" soon grew into its own building and, by 1952, a larger sanctuary. With a motto of "Open Hearts, Open Arms, Open Minds," the congregation built a long record of civic service — from child care for migrant workers to health clinics and hunger relief.
Why it matters
Campus congregations shaped the moral and civic life of America's growing universities, and this one links a modest college church to a governor's mansion and decades of community service.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Preston Smith
- · Sallie Maud Horn
- · Rev. R. Luther Kirk
- · Bishop Ivan Lee Holt
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Texas Tech Alumni Association
Lubbock, TX
When Texas Technological College handed out its first diplomas on May 30, 1927, the graduates immediately organized an alumni association to stay tied to their new school. From offices in the Administration Building it launched a magazine in 1937, weathered lean postwar years thanks to a "100 Club" of donors, and grew alongside the booming college of the 1950s and 1960s. Renamed several times, it became the Texas Tech Alumni Association at its 75th anniversary in 2002 and today anchors the campus through the McKenzie-Merket Alumni Center.
The Mast House
Lubbock, TX
Built in 1925 by prominent Lubbock builder A. M. Hensley, this Colonial Revival home—with its paired Doric columns—was raised for Dr. Clarence S. Mast, a physics professor on the founding faculty of Texas Tech University. Moved a block from its original site in 1981, the house survives as a reminder of the young university's earliest days.
St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church
Lubbock, TX
Catholic worship in Lubbock began with circuit-riding priests saying Mass in hotels and homes, and the first parish, St. Joseph's, was organized in 1924. As Texas Technological College drew growth westward, the Diocese of Amarillo built this second church, dedicated in 1936 in an eclectic Spanish Mission style with Byzantine and Spanish Colonial flourishes. Named for St. Elizabeth to honor a benefactor's mother, it grew alongside the college's Catholic student ministry into a diverse parish of students and longtime residents.
First Baptist Church of Lubbock
Lubbock, TX
When Lubbock was barely a settlement, the First Baptist congregation organized in 1891 and met in the county jail until a small church was built in 1901. Early members funded their work with box suppers, ice cream parties, and quilting bees, and the church grew alongside the town—swelling when Texas Technological College opened in 1925 and welcoming servicemen from the area's Army airfields during World War II. By mid-century it had moved to its present Broadway location and broadened into wide-ranging ministries.