St. Matthew's Cathedral
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Rev. George Rottenstein held the first Episcopal service in Dallas in a storehouse on May 25, 1856, and organized this parish on St. Matthew's Day, Sept. 21, 1857. The Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg, first bishop of Texas, visited Dallas in 1860 and conducted services in the Masonic Hall. In 1870 the Rev. Silas Dean Davenport led the congregation in erecting its first church building, a frame structure at Elm and Lamar. St. Matthew's became a cathedral in 1875 when the Rt. Rev. Alexander Charles Garrett, the first missionary bishop of North Texas, chose it as his see church. The growing parish moved to a new brick edifice at Commerce and Kendall in 1877, but that soon became too small. A stone cathedral at Ervay and Canton was occupied in 1895, the year the Diocese of Dallas was created, and consecrated in 1899, just 25 years after Bishop Garrett's consecration. The Rev. Hudson Stuck, benefactor of children, was then dean of the cathedral. The very Rev. Harry Tunis Moore, dean of St. Matthew's in 1907-1917, became second bishop of Dallas when Bishop Garrett died in 1924. In 1929, the congregation moved to the former St. Mary's College Chapel, at this site. By 1976, the original six-member parish numbered over 1300.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The first Episcopal service in Dallas was held in a storehouse in 1856, and the parish was organized the next year on St. Matthew's Day. It raised its first frame church in 1870 and became a cathedral in 1875 when it was chosen as the see of the missionary bishop of North Texas. Through a succession of larger buildings it grew alongside the city, from a six-member parish into a congregation of more than a thousand.
Why it matters
The cathedral's rise from a storehouse service to a diocesan seat charts the transformation of Dallas from a frontier settlement into a major American city.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1856 Dallas was barely a town. It was a small settlement near a crossing on the Trinity River in North Texas, surrounded by blackland prairie that was just beginning to be farmed. There were no railroads, the roads were rough, and most churches started the way this one did: a traveling clergyman, a borrowed room and a handful of faithful people.
The Civil War and Reconstruction slowed growth across Texas, but the 1870s changed Dallas almost overnight. Railroads reached the town early in that decade and turned it into a hub for cotton, cattle, goods and people. Dallas went from frontier village to booming commercial city within a generation.
Churches grew right along with it. Denominations that had sent missionaries to scattered settlements were soon organizing dioceses, raising brick and stone buildings, and supplying the cultural life of a city that was fast becoming important. St. Matthew's history follows that curve closely.
People & events
It began in May 1856, when the Rev. George Rottenstein held the first Episcopal service in Dallas inside a storehouse. The next year, on St. Matthew's Day in September, he organized the parish. Its first members could have fit around a single table: six of them. In 1860 Bishop Alexander Gregg, the first Episcopal bishop of Texas, visited and led services in the Masonic Hall, another reminder that this young congregation still had no building of its own.
That changed in 1870, when the Rev. Silas Dean Davenport led the congregation in building a frame church at Elm and Lamar. Five years later the parish rose in rank. Alexander Charles Garrett, the first missionary bishop of North Texas, chose St. Matthew's as his see church, which made it a cathedral. Garrett served a very long episcopate in Dallas. He later became Presiding Bishop of the national Episcopal Church and stayed in Dallas until his death in 1924.
The congregation kept outgrowing its buildings: brick at Commerce and Kendall in 1877, then stone at Ervay and Canton, occupied in 1895 and consecrated in 1899. At the turn of the century the dean was the Rev. Hudson Stuck, remembered as a benefactor of children. Stuck went on to a remarkable career as an Episcopal missionary in Alaska. A later dean, Harry Tunis Moore, became the second bishop of Dallas. In 1929 the cathedral moved to the former St. Mary's College Chapel, where this marker stands.
Its place in the American story
St. Matthew's is a case study in how American cities were built after the Civil War. Railroads made the money and the population. Institutions such as churches, schools and charities gave a raw boomtown its sense of permanence. Every move from storehouse to frame church, from brick to stone, marks a step in Dallas's growing confidence.
The story also shows how a national church organized the West. Missionary bishops were assigned to huge, thinly settled territories, and they chose cathedral churches to anchor them. When the Diocese of Dallas was created in 1895, the missionary field had become an established diocese. The same thing happened across the country as the frontier filled in.
The people tied to this cathedral reached far beyond Texas. Its first bishop led the whole Episcopal Church. One of its deans became a well-known figure in Alaska. A congregation that started with six members ended up connected to the national story in ways its founders could not have imagined.
If you visit
Today St. Matthew's sits in a city of skyscrapers and freeways, which makes its beginning in a storehouse all the more striking. Before you go, try to picture Dallas as a dusty river settlement where a church service in a borrowed room was big news.
The building at this site was first a college chapel, so look for the scale and character of an academic chapel adapted for cathedral use. Several earlier locations named on the marker, including Elm and Lamar and Commerce and Kendall, are in what is now downtown Dallas. A walk or drive past them gives you a sense of how the city grew outward.
This is a working cathedral with an active congregation, so plan around services and visit respectfully. It fits easily into a Dallas history day that might include downtown's older streets and the city's museums.
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
- · Alexander Charles Garrett
- · Hudson Stuck
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