First Methodist Church of Azle

The congregation's name changed in 1968 because two denominations became one. The Methodist Church, formed in 1939 when three branches of American Methodism reunited, joined the Evangelical United Brethren Church in 1968 to form the United Methodist Church. The Handbook of Texas says the uniting conference met in Dallas and called for the end of the segregated central jurisdiction, which had set Black Methodists apart. By 1970 all Black members in Texas had been integrated into the five geographical annual conferences. The Azle church had bought a building from the United Brethren congregation soon after organizing.

What the plaque says

First Methodist Church of Azle The Rev. Will A. Stephens and 15 charter members organized this church in 1895, then purchased a church building from the United Brethren Church and secured a parsonage. Sunday school classes began in 1930. The church called its first full-time Minister in 1942, and by 1946 membership had more than doubled. An education building was erected in 1949-51 and new brick sanctuary was built in 1960. The congregation was renamed First United Methodist Church in 1968, following the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist denominations. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Worth Stockyards — 13 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 14 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 14 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 15 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.

More markers nearby

• Ash Creek Baptist Church — 0.4 mi
• Ash Creek Cemetery — 0.5 mi
• Coho and Nancy Jane Smith Farmstead Site — 1.5 mi
• Kiowa Raid on Walnut Creek — 2.4 mi