OUR HISTORY & SIGNIFICANCE
OUR HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE
150+ Years of Faith
It began in the summer of 1873 under a brush arbor on a vacant lot in North Dallas. St. Paul is the oldest African American Methodist church in Dallas and the only downtown church rooted in African American traditions of worship.
A congregation gathered under a brush arbor.
In the summer of 1873, a group of freedmen and freedwomen began meeting under a brush arbor on a vacant lot at the northeast end of North Dallas. They had no church building, no official name, and no recognition yet from the Methodist Episcopal Church. What they had was faith, and each other.
Rev. H. Boliver was their first pastor. Newly freed men and women and freed soldiers filled those early services, and they became the heart of the congregation that grew into St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church. It is the third oldest African American church founded in the Freedman's Town and North Dallas neighborhood.
That neighborhood was once a thriving center of Black life in Dallas, home to as many as fifteen churches, schools, social service institutions, and businesses, with laborers, wage workers, and professionals living side by side. Most of it was later lost to demolition and redevelopment into today's Arts District. St. Paul is still here.
OUR FOUNDING
THE TIMELINE
A Living Legacy
1873
Freedmen and freedwomen meet under a brush arbor
A group gathers on a vacant lot at the northeast end of North Dallas. The congregation has no official name yet and no recognition from the Methodist Episcopal Church, but St. Paul has begun.
1876
Samuel Huston College was founded at St. Paul
The college now known as Huston-Tillotson University was founded here and held its first classes in this congregation, three years after the church itself began.
1913 - 1927
The red brick sanctuary rises
Members of the church and residents of Freedman’s Town built the sanctuary that still holds our worship today, a rare surviving example of an architect designed African American church in Dallas.
1944
The Dallas Bethlehem Center was founded
One of the long-running community institutions St. Paul has supported, serving families across South Dallas for more than eighty years.
1982
Designated a City of Dallas historic landmark
The first of three designations recognizing the building’s architectural and social significance to the city.
1997
Body and Soul Ministry to the Unsheltered begins
A ministry born from the congregation’s promise to love all people body and soul, still serving our unsheltered neighbors downtown.
2007 - 2010
Major renovation and restoration
After limited alterations in 1972, 1989, and 1997, the congregation undertook a full restoration of the historic sanctuary.
2013 - 2014
Texas designation and the Union Cathedral merger
The State of Texas recognized the church as a historic landmark in 2013, and in 2014 St. Paul merged with Union Cathedral, becoming a multigenerational and multicultural congregation.
2016
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places
Listed on December 27, 2016, at the local level of significance for its architectural design and for the stories of African American life it preserves.
Today
Still rooted in African American worship
St. Paul stands in the largest contiguous urban arts district in the nation, led across its history by 36 pastors, still serving the city from the heart of the Dallas Arts District.
Next
Preserving the church for the generations after us
Our preservation project cares for the building and the story it carries, so that the next 150 years of worship have a place to happen.
ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Designed by Architects, Built by Faith
Between 1913 and 1927, St. Paul's members and their Freedman's Town neighbors raised the red-brick sanctuary that still hosts our worship today. Designed by architects M. H. Black and Charles H. Leinbach, it is a rare surviving example in Dallas of an early twentieth-century, architect-designed African American church.
Its Collegiate Gothic Revival style, embellished with Romanesque Revival elements, is rare in downtown Dallas, and the building preserves construction methods seldom seen today. After limited alterations over the years, the congregation completed a major restoration in 2010.
The labor behind these walls is part of their significance. Like many first-generation free people of their era, St. Paul's members worked together toward a long-range goal, and the original brick they laid is still visible today in the church's lower level and on its exterior walls.
1913 - 1927
BUILT BY MEMBERS
2007 - 2010
MAJOR RESTORATION
Collegiate Gothic
ROMANESQUE ELEMENTS
historic designations
Recognized by the city, the state, and the nation
community impact
A change agent for Dallas since the beginning.
Since its founding, the church has led the community in spiritual, educational, and social justice matters. It was at St. Paul in 1876 that Samuel Huston College, now Huston-Tillotson University in Austin, was founded and held its first classes.
The church has been socially significant for its associations with the Freedman's Town and North Dallas African American community, for providing community support and social services to members and to the larger community, for helping establish the professionalization and permanence of African American churches in Dallas, and for fostering social change through action designed to desegregate institutions in the pre-Civil Rights era.
In 2014, St. Paul merged with Union Cathedral. The union made St. Paul a multigenerational, multicultural congregation and moved the church toward a greater future. Since its inception, St. Paul has been led by 36 pastors, each bringing leadership that reflected the needs of the community locally, regionally, and nationally. Rev. Kantrice S. Robinson serves as our 36th pastor.
NOTABLE MEMBERS AND GUESTS
A Legacy of Leaders
St. Paul has nurtured artists, athletes, and public servants, and has welcomed national leaders to its pulpit.
Members and affiliates
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Erykah Badu sang in the St. Paul youth choir.
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Ernie Banks, a baseball great, was a member.
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Roosevelt “Stickman” Wilkerson, folk artist, is known for his Ten Commandments carving stick, owned by President George W. Bush.
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Lucy Patterson was the first African American woman elected to the Dallas City Council.
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Rhetta Andrews Bowers, Texas House of Representatives, was a member.
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Zan Wesley Holmes, Jr. served as a St. Paul intern pastor.
Guests who have spoken at St. Paul
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The Honorable Eric Holder, the first African American United States Attorney General
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Ambassador Andrew Young
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The late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson
VISIT IN PERSON
See Our History Up Close.
Visit the timeline display in the Welcome Center.
FROM THE ARCHIVE
The building and its windows.
