White Rock Chapel
Addison, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Formed in the Freedman's community of Upper White Rock (settled by former slaves from the nearby Coit, Caruth and Obier plantations), White Rock Chapel Methodist Church was organized after a meeting at the home of George Coit. Founding members purchased land on White Rock Creek beside a small African American burial ground in early 1884 and constructed a log building. The first pastor, the Rev. Mr. Burse, served about 28 families until 1914. Frequent flooding was a problem for the congregation. According to oral history, the congregation sometimes spent days inside the building waiting for floodwaters to recede. A 1918 deluge drowned a family after a service; soon after, the congregation moved to this site on higher ground only a few hundred feet to the west. It was donated by S. S. Noell, an Anglo who was a frequent visitor to White Rock Chapel. The congregation was renamed Christian Chapel, C. M. E., in honor of its pastor, C. C. Christian. In 1960, a church member donated more land about a mile south. Most of the original congregation decided to relocate. After enduring the loss of their building from fire, remaining members reclaimed their original name, calling themselves White Rock Chapel Independent Methodist Church. In the fall of 1969, a large corporation claimed ownership of the three acres known as the White Rock Union Graveyard. Area churches banded together to fight the claim in court, securing a temporary restraining order. White Rock Chapel trustees continued the legal battle to preserve the land on which their church first met, finally prevailing in 1979. By the end of the 20th century, the church served a wide area of Dallas County, including residents of the cities of Dallas, Grand Prairie, Garland and Carrollton. (2000)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After emancipation, freed people from the Coit, Caruth, and Obier plantations built the community of Upper White Rock, and in 1884 they organized a Methodist congregation and raised a log church beside a small African American burial ground. Repeated flooding tormented the worshippers — oral history recalls the congregation trapped inside for days waiting for waters to fall, and a 1918 flood that drowned a family after services drove them to higher ground. Renamed over the decades and tested by fire, the church later fought a years-long court battle, finally won in 1979, to keep the very graveyard where it began.
Why it matters
The chapel is a living record of how a Freedman's community claimed sacred ground of its own and defended it across a century of floods, fires, and legal challenges to its land.
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Related people
- · George Coit
- · S. S. Noell
- · C. C. Christian
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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