Simpson United Methodist Church

Simpson's founders were freedmen in the Gregorytown neighborhood, who named their mission for Bishop Matthew Simpson in 1880. After more than forty years there the congregation moved to this site, worshipped first under a tent, and built a tabernacle in the 1920s, much of it raised at night by formerly enslaved people and their families, working without blueprints. The tabernacle, three feet below grade, is now the fellowship hall and the foundation of the larger church begun in 1952. By 1926 it counted over 500 members, and the Austin NAACP branch met here.

What the plaque says

Simpson United Methodist Church This congregation grew from an early Sunday School class directed by Annas Brown, Richard Dukes and Mrs. Vina Harris Forehand, members of Wesley Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, for residents of the far eastern section of Austin. In December 1880, the group organized as the Simpson Mission Methodist Episcopal Church. The congregational name was chosen to honor Bishop Matthew Simpson (d. 1884), a pioneer Methodist leader who was also an active political negotiator, an abolitionist and a noted orator. Worship services were first held in a community schoolhouse. A frame sanctuary, constructed at the corner of Concho and Gregory Streets in May 1881, was used until the congregation moved to this site in 1922. New facilities were later added here to accommodate the church's continued growth. Known as Simpson United Methodist Church since 1970, this fellowship has played a significant role in the development of Austin's black community for over a century. Church programs, including mission work, service projects and revivals, have reflected the congregation's strong sense of community pride and involvement, pastors and members here have included many prominent Methodist leaders. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.3 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.5 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.8 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 1.0 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.

More markers nearby

• James L. Farmer, Jr. — steps away
• Site of Old Anderson High School, Kealing Junior High School — steps away
• Laurine Cecil Anderson — steps away
• Peter Henry Oberwetter — 0.3 mi