University United Methodist Church
Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1912, a small Sunday group under the guidance of Reverend Alonzo Monk, Jr. Began to meet in a rental house on Hemphill Street under the name Hemphill Heights Methodist Mission. The church grew rapidly and, in 1919, moved to George Clark Elementary School while a new building was built on Hemphill Street. The building was completed in 1923; however, in 1934, it was condemned due to foundation problems. With no building to worship in, the congregation decided to use a temporary location in a warehouse with no air or heat. In 1935, they secured the site at the present location on the corner of Berry St. and McCart Ave. And spent the next two years raising money for a new building. On January 27, 1937, the congregation held their first service in the new church as Matthews Memorial Methodist Church. The congregation changed its name to University United Methodist Church in 1975 to identify itself more closely with Texas Christian University. The church has demonstrated Christ’s word through ministries such as the United Methodist Committee on relief, which helps those in need after a catastrophe strikes, youth and adult mission trips and through the support of international projects and missionaries. The congregation also provides local assistance to help those in south central Fort Worth through hands-on projects such as transportation services and partnerships with several local organizations. Today, University United Methodist Church continues its legacy as a source of outreach, hope and spiritual guidance in the community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A small Sunday group first gathered in a rented Hemphill Street house in 1912 as the Hemphill Heights Methodist Mission. The congregation grew, weathered a condemned building and worship in an unheated warehouse, and in 1937 opened a new church as Matthews Memorial Methodist. Renamed University United Methodist in 1975 to reflect its ties to Texas Christian University, it has long anchored outreach in south-central Fort Worth.
Why it matters
The congregation's persistence through repeated setbacks illustrates the role neighborhood churches played in binding together a growing city.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In 1912, Fort Worth was booming. Railroads, stockyards, and a steady stream of newcomers were pushing the city outward into fresh neighborhoods, and each new district needed the institutions that turn a collection of houses into a community. Chief among them was a church. Across turn-of-the-century America, a congregation often took root before the paved streets did, meeting in whatever room could be found.
That is exactly how this story begins — not with a steeple, but with a rented house. Small groups gathering in borrowed rooms were the seed from which countless American congregations grew, and the Hemphill Street neighborhood was no exception. The optimism of the era was real, but so was its fragility.
The decades that followed tested that optimism hard. The Great Depression of the 1930s strained congregations everywhere, draining building funds and forcing hard choices about where and how to worship. This congregation's path ran straight through those lean years, and the setbacks it faced were the setbacks of its age writ small.
People & events
It started in 1912 with a small Sunday group meeting in a rented house on Hemphill Street, guided by the Reverend Alonzo Monk, Jr., under the name Hemphill Heights Methodist Mission. Growth came quickly. By 1919 the congregation had outgrown its quarters and moved temporarily into George Clark Elementary School while a proper building went up on Hemphill Street.
Then came the trials. The new building, finished in 1923, was condemned barely a decade later, in 1934, when foundation problems made it unsafe. Suddenly a growing congregation had nowhere to worship. Rather than scatter, they made do with a warehouse — no air, no heat — a stark measure of how much the community mattered to its members. In 1935 they secured a new site at Berry Street and McCart Avenue and spent two years raising the money to build.
Their persistence paid off on January 27, 1937, when the congregation held its first service in the new church, now called Matthews Memorial Methodist Church. Decades later, in 1975, they renamed themselves University United Methodist Church to reflect their close ties to nearby Texas Christian University. Through it all, the congregation kept its focus outward — disaster relief, mission trips, transportation services, and partnerships aiding south-central Fort Worth.
Its place in the American story
The arc of this congregation is the arc of the American neighborhood church. In a fast-growing country, small Methodist and other Protestant fellowships repeatedly followed the same pattern: a handful of families in a rented room, a rapid climb in membership, a first building, and often a hard passage through financial or physical disaster before a lasting home was found. This is that pattern in miniature, dates and all.
What these churches offered went well beyond Sunday worship. They were social anchors, relief agencies, and gathering places, binding transient newcomers into a shared civic life. When this congregation worshipped in an unheated warehouse rather than disband, it was performing a role that thousands of American churches played in their own towns — holding a community together when the walls literally came down.
The outward-facing ministries the church still runs — aid after catastrophe, support for those in need, hands-on local help — connect it to a broad national tradition of faith-based service. It is a reminder that much of America's charitable safety net has long been woven, congregation by congregation, at the neighborhood scale.
If you visit
Stand at the corner of Berry Street and McCart Avenue and consider how hard-won this spot was. This was the congregation's third try at a permanent home, secured in 1935 after a condemned building and a season in a warehouse. The church that opened here in 1937 represents years of small donations gathered in the depths of the Depression — a building raised on stubbornness as much as stone.
As you take in the setting, remember the two earlier chapters written elsewhere: the rented house on Hemphill Street where it all began in 1912, and the Hemphill Street building lost to a failing foundation. The present church is the survivor of that longer journey, and knowing the backstory makes the ordinary sight of a neighborhood sanctuary quietly moving.
The congregation's ties to nearby Texas Christian University give the surrounding area a lively, walkable, university-town feel, making this an easy stop on a wider exploration of south-central Fort Worth. If you're drawn to the human stories behind a city's institutions, this is a place where persistence is the whole point — a community that refused, again and again, to give up its gathering place. Do check locally for any current visiting arrangements, as it remains an active house of worship.
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
- · Alonzo Monk, Jr.
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