Webster Chapel United Methodist Church
Victoria, Victoria County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This fellowship was organized shortly after the Civil War to serve the newly freed slaves of the Victoria area. Originally a Methodist Episcopal Church, it began in 1871 when church trustees George Ware, Thads Phillips, Isaac Smith, Alexander Bonds, James Maulding, John Hall, Madison Gafford, Abner James, and George Washington purchased land at this site for the construction of a sanctuary. Many of the early members had attended services of the First Methodist Church of Victoria as slaves. The Rev. N. Webster, for whom the church was later named, served as the first pastor. The first church building, a frame sancturary, was completed here in 1889. Later changes, which included additions to the structure and extensive interior remodeling , were a result of the church's continued growth. Many members were added in the 1930s and 1940s as residents of the surrounding area moved to Victoria in search of jobs. Many prominent pastors and members have been associated with Webster Chapel United Methodist Church. Since the days following the Civil War, it has played a significant role in the growth and development of Victoria's Black community. (1981)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized just after the Civil War to serve Victoria's newly freed people, this congregation formed in 1871 when nine Black trustees purchased land here for a sanctuary. Many of its first members had worshiped at Victoria's First Methodist Church while enslaved, and the church took its name from its first pastor, the Rev. N. Webster. A frame sanctuary rose in 1889, and the congregation grew through the 1930s and 1940s as rural families moved to the city for work.
Why it matters
The church stands as a cornerstone of Victoria's Black community, born from the hope and self-determination of freedpeople in the Reconstruction South.
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Related people
- · N. Webster
- · George Ware
- · George Washington
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Palestine Missionary Baptist Church
Victoria, TX
On June 27, 1868, twenty-one former slaves gathered at Convent and Depot streets to organize the first Black Baptist church in Victoria County, soon renamed Palestine Missionary Baptist Church. That same month, land nearby was conveyed for the town's first freedmen's school, and early worship shared space with those schools for the newly free. Under the Rev. Mitchell Harrison the congregation built its first sanctuary in the early 1870s, growing through successive buildings and spinning off four more congregations.
Mitchell School
Victoria, TX
When Victoria voted to create an independent school district in 1898, its plan laid bare the era's racial order: eight schools, four for Anglo children and four for African American children. Prominent architect Jules Leffland designed the imposing three-story building completed on this site in 1902, later renamed to honor early trustee J.D. Mitchell. Fires in 1935 and 1943 cost the school its top floor, but the building endured and still serves as an educational center today.
F.W. Gross High School
Victoria, TX
Black education in Victoria began in a Reconstruction-era freedmen's school, and by 1902 a prominent brick schoolhouse stood on East Convent Street under the long leadership of Prof. Frederick W. Gross. Renamed in his honor in 1935, the school won a reputation for excellence in academics and athletics and moved to a new building in 1939. It served as Victoria's high school for African American students until integration in 1966.
First Baptist Church of Victoria
Victoria, TX
On May 15, 1852, a small band of eight men and women—among them an enslaved person—organized the First Baptist Church of Victoria on the Texas coastal plain. In its early years the congregation shared a Methodist meeting house and later built a frame sanctuary above an Odd Fellows lodge hall. A steeple bell recovered after a storm scattered the port town of Indianola has followed the congregation through each new building since 1878.