First United Methodist Church of Houston

The plaque credits the church with helping found the Methodist Hospital, which began as one doctor's private hospital. Dr. Oscar L. Norsworthy opened a thirty-bed hospital in 1908 at San Jacinto and Rosalie. In 1919 he transferred it to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and it was chartered as The Methodist Hospital, the first in Texas owned and run by the Methodist church. A five-story building with seventy-two beds opened in 1924, the year its nursing school took in eight students; the school ran until 1961. In 1951 the hospital moved to the new Texas Medical Center.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Houston The foundation of Methodism in Houston began in 1837, when missionaries Martin Ruter and Littleton Fowler established a Sunday School Society. On April 14, 1839, the Rev. Jesse Hord received 14 members by transfer of letter, establishing the Methodist Church. In 1844, the Methodist Episcopal Church South opened its first building on the north side of Texas Avenue, between Travis and Milam streets, on land the Allen Brothers had reserved for a church when Houston was platted. From 1883 to 1909, the church was known as Charles Shearn Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South. As Houston grew, the congregation prospered, and plans were developed to build a new church. In 1907, the Texas Avenue property was sold, and First Methodist Episcopal Church South opened its doors in 1910 at the corner of Main and Clay streets. In 1939, the name changed to First Methodist Church and in 1968 to First United Methodist Church. In 1992, the congregation approved a plan to establish a second campus. The Westchase Congregation began worship in 1993 and opened a worship center in 1999. This congregation's commitment to local, national and worldwide programs and ministries led it to help start new churches and establish non-profit groups, including Wesley Community Center, Bluebird Circle, Quillian Memorial Center, Clarewood House, Wesley Academy and Christian Alliance. Together with the Texas Conference, the church helped to establish the Methodist Hospital. The church has furthered its outreach through televised worship services since 1955. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 0.5 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 1.3 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 1.4 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Rothko Chapel — 2.1 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• The Houston Club — 0.3 mi
• Houston Public Library — 0.4 mi
• Thomas William House, Jr. — 0.4 mi
• Sam Houston Park — 0.4 mi