First United Methodist Church of Kingsville

The 1951 sanctuary went up as Kingsville more than doubled. The town counted 7,782 people in 1940; then the naval auxiliary air station opened in 1942, with 6,000 to 7,000 people there at one point in the war, and the Celanese plant began work a few miles north in 1944, its workers living mostly in town. By 1950 Kingsville had about 16,900 residents, and by 1960 more than 25,000, even as the railroad closed its general office and shops in the early 1950s. The population has stayed near that level since.

What the plaque says

First United Methodist Church of Kingsville FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF KINGSVILLE The first Methodist worship service in Kingsville was on March 4, 1904. The Reverend C. S. Mills, a pastor from Corpus Christi, conducted the service with thirty-one attendants sitting under mesquite trees. Services continued in local businesses and the Presbyterian Church until 1908 when a church building was erected for the congregation. The first service was held there in January of 1909. A new church building was erected next door in 1926. A new sanctuary was completed in 1951 and is the current sanctuary. The congregation's history of missionary work and community service has contributed to the growth and success of the area. (2014)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• King Ranch Visitor Center — 1.6 mi
  The bus-tour gate to a working ranch of about 825,000 acres, founded on Santa Gertrudis Creek in 1853 and worked from the start by the Kineños, families from Cruillas in Tamaulipas.
• Kenedy Ranch Museum of South Texas — 21 mi
  A museum in the Kenedy Pasture Company's 1927 office in Sarita, telling how Mifflin Kenedy and three generations of his family shaped the Wild Horse Desert, with murals and an audio guide.
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine — 24 mi
  The grave and shrine of the folk healer of Los Olmos, a place of prayer where South Texans still leave candles and letters for the curandero who took no fee.
• Heritage Museum at Falfurrias — 26 mi
  A free town museum of ranch gear, a Texas Ranger room and 99,000 photo negatives, in the town Edward Lasater built around his railroad and his Jersey cows.

More markers nearby

• First Presbyterian Church of Kingsville — steps away
• Uriah Lott — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Kingsville — steps away
• King Star Baptist Church — 0.4 mi