Summerfield Methodist Church
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
SUMMERFIELD METHODIST CHURCH WAS BUILT IN 1869 ON LAND DONATED BY PARSON B.W. BROWN WHO WAS ALSO LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FORMATION OF GREGG COUNTY. NAMED AFTER A CHURCH THE BROWN FAMILY HAD ATTENDED IN ALABAMA, THE CHURCH STANDS AS THE ONLY REMAINING NAMESAKE OF THE PIONEER COMMUNITY KNOWN AS SUMMERFIELD. CONSTRUCTION BEGAN ON A NEW CHURCH WING IN 1952, AND A NEW CHURCH SANCTUARY, EDUCATION WING, AND PARSONAGE WERE BUILT ON THE ORIGINAL SITE BY 1975. THE ORIGINAL BELL REMAINS IN FRONT OF THE PRESENT SANCTUARY. THE CHURCH FORMED ONE OF THE FIRST OFFICIAL WOMAN’S CHURCH SOCIETIES IN THE AREA IN 1937 AND HAS BEEN THE ANCHOR OF THE COMMUNITY SINCE THE MID-19TH CENTURY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1869 on land given by Parson B.W. Brown, a founder of Gregg County, Summerfield Methodist Church took its name from an Alabama congregation the Brown family had left behind. It became the last surviving trace of the vanished pioneer settlement of Summerfield, anchoring its community through generations of rebuilding. The congregation organized one of the area's first official women's church societies in 1937.
Why it matters
The church shows how frontier congregations often outlasted the very towns that raised them, becoming the last living memory of communities otherwise lost to history.
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Related people
- · B.W. Brown
Themes & tags
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