Saint Philip's Episcopal Church

James Steptoe Johnston, the second bishop named on the plaque, came to West Texas by a long road. Born in Mississippi in 1843, he left the University of Virginia to enlist, rode as a lieutenant in Jeb Stuart's cavalry and spent a year as a prisoner. He read law and was ordained a priest in 1871. In 1888, without college or seminary training, he became bishop of a missionary district of more than 100,000 square miles. In 1904 it became the self-supporting Diocese of West Texas, and its clergy elected him its first bishop.

What the plaque says

Saint Philip's Episcopal Church In 1877 Bishop R. W. Elliott of the Missionary District of West Texas envisioned a church for the nearly four million recently freed black citizens of Texas. His campaign for sunday Schools and other religious services for African Americans was cut short by his retirement, but his actions carved a path for the future. Under the authority of Bishop James Steptoe Johnston, the first Episcopal Church for African Americans in the Diocese of West Texas was established in 1895. The first home of "St. Philip's Episcopal Church for Negroes" was an old German Methodist church in downtown San Antonio later known as La Villita. In 1898, the church began a vocational school for African American young people which in 1923 became known as St. Philip's College. After many years at La Villita, the congregation was forced to find other homes. Beginning in 19917, several locations served in turn as houses of worship for St. Philip's. A new church was erected on Pecan Valley Drive in 1963; it remained the only predominantly African American church in the diocese until 1964. A full parish since 1967, St. Philip's provides support for many Episcopal programs and funds and is active in community outreach and fellowship. (1998)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• La Villita Historic Arts Village — 3.6 mi
  The little village across the river from the presidio, where Cos surrendered San Antonio in 1835, rebuilt by Depression-era youth crews as a working crafts village.
• Mission Concepción — 3.6 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.
• The Alamo — 3.6 mi
  Mission San Antonio de Valero before it was a fort: a church its builders never finished, a thirteen-day siege in 1836, and the Army gable of 1850-52 that became its emblem.
• San Antonio River Walk — 3.7 mi
  A Depression-era park one level below downtown, built because San Antonio refused to pave its river after the 1921 flood, and designed by an architect the project later fired.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Camp of Stephen F. Austin — 0.5 mi
• Young Perry Alsbury — 1.2 mi
• Second Baptist Church of San Antonio — 1.3 mi
• Old Houston Road — 1.4 mi