Saint Paul Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

The congregation marked 125 years in 2019 and put history in a time capsule. The Orange Leader reported that the church began in 1894 when a small group of laymen decided they needed a church home. The anniversary service on March 17, 2019, was to include a proclamation from Mayor Larry Spears and guests from Douglas Memorial C.M.E. Church in Beaumont. The church planned to seal a time capsule on May 19, 2019, for children who will be adult leaders in 25 years. It is scheduled to be opened in 2044.

What the plaque says

Saint Paul Christian Methodist Episcopal Church This African American congregation held informal worship services in homes and later in a nearby building before church trustees Josiah Hardin, William Holmes, Peter Rogers, Julius Sanders, and Silas Hardin acquired a town lot here for church building purposes in 1894. That year a wood frame sanctuary was built and the congregation formally organized as the Saint Paul Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. According to local tradition, the congregation chose to name their church for Saint Paul because of his historically significant missionary undertakings. Led by the Rev. E. A. Strong, a new wood frame church building was constructed here in 1945. Growth in the congregation's membership prompted the building of a new brick sanctuary at this site in 1969. A new parsonage was purchased in 1989, and in 1989-90 the congregation purchased two adjoining lots for future expansion purposes. The congregation sponsors several church programs including a Sunday School teaching program, Bible study, Christian youth fellowship and young adult fellowship. Its missionary society, which includes the Annie Rose Circle, Willie Green Circle, and Youth Circle, provides religious guidance for the community. (1994)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stark Museum of Art — 0.6 mi
  A white-marble museum in Orange built by the Stark Foundation and opened in 1978, holding Western art, American Indian art, Audubon's Birds of America and Steuben glass, free to enter.
• Shangri La Botanical Gardens and Nature Center — 1.0 mi
  More than 250 acres on Adams Bayou, begun by H. J. Lutcher Stark in 1937, with garden rooms, a cypress-tupelo swamp, a heronry blind and free pontoon tours in season.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 20 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 21 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.

More markers nearby

• Black Education in Orange County — steps away
• Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church — steps away
• Salem United Methodist Church — steps away
• St. Therese Catholic Church — 0.2 mi