Wesley United Methodist Church
Austin, Travis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This congregation was established at the end of the Civil War for freedmen of the Austin area. It was begun through the efforts of the Rev. Joseph Welch, a white Methodist missionary, and the Rev. Isaac Wright, a black minister of the Methodist Church, North. The original meetings were conducted in the basement of the Tenth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, South, which many of this congregation's early members had attended as slaves. The first building for the Wesley United Methodist Church (Wesley Chapel Church) was a stone sanctuary with a dirt floor built in 1867 at Ninth and Neches streets. A new edifice, known as "Old Wesley on the Hill", was constructed in 1882. The Site served the congregation until 1929, when the church moved to new facilities here. One of the leading black churches in Texas, this congregation has actively participated in community projects, mission work and educational leadership. Church facilities have been used for classes of Samuel Huston College and for formal organization of the West Texas Methodist Conference. The church's programs and dramatic growth continue to reflect the ideals and religious dedication of its founders. (1982)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
As the Civil War ended and emancipation came to Texas, freedpeople across Austin sought to worship in congregations of their own rather than in the segregated pews of their former enslavers. Wesley United Methodist grew out of exactly that moment, founded through the joint efforts of a white missionary and a Black minister and first meeting in the basement of the very church many members had attended as slaves. From an 1867 stone sanctuary with a dirt floor it grew into one of the leading Black churches in Texas, hosting classes for Samuel Huston College and a home for community and mission work.
Why it matters
The congregation embodies the great Reconstruction-era flowering of independent Black churches, which became the schools, civic halls, and organizing centers of African American community life across the South.
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Related people
- · Rev. Joseph Welch
- · Rev. Isaac Wright
Themes & tags
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