Christ Church

The church that stood here came in a crate. Caleb Ives landed on December 12, 1838 as the Episcopal Church's first foreign missionary to Texas and gave Communion on Christmas Day, after the Texas Congress had rejected a church charter in 1837. He toured the eastern states raising money, then bought a pre-cut church and shipped it from New York by sailing vessel; its first service was on Easter 1841, three years before Bishop Leonidas Polk consecrated it. After the 1854 storm, the pews, altar and communion rail from that building went into the church that replaced it.

What the plaque says

Christ Church On a site approximately 400 yards east stood Christ Church. First Episcopal church in Texas. Organized January 27, 1839. The Rev. Caleb S. Ives, Rector. Building consecrated February 25, 1844 by the Rt. Rev. Leonidas Polk,, D.D., Bishop of Louisiana. Diocese of Texas established January 1, 1849. Building destroyed by hurricane September 11, 1854. Rebuilt on present site. The Rev. Mr. Ives and his wife established and taught an early school in connection with the parish.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Levi Jordan Plantation State Historic Site — 29 mi
  A sugar and cotton plantation on the San Bernard River whose enslaved builders and their descendants left one of the best-preserved African American archeological sites in Texas.
• Matagorda Island — 37 mi
  A 38-mile barrier island reached only by boat from Port O'Connor, with a lighthouse of 1852, the ghosts of two towns and a fort, and no water, power or cars.

More markers nearby

• City of Matagorda — steps away
• Matagorda Methodist Church — steps away
• Matagorda Lodge No. 7, A.F. & A.M. — steps away
• St. Peter's Baptist Church — 0.3 mi