St. Paul United Methodist Church

Accounts of the westside's first Black Methodists differ on the count. The plaque says seventeen members began Hackett Chapel in 1915; the Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church says Rev. S. D. Hackett started it with seven, mostly migrants from Louisiana. The marker came in March 2020 after research and an application led by lay leader Jacqueline Gunner. At the unveiling the Port Arthur News met Vernice Moore, 92, who was born in 1928 in what was then Hackett Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church. Descendants of founding members were there too.

What the plaque says

St. Paul United Methodist Church In 1915, Reverend S.D. Hackett introduced Methodism to the historic westside of Port Arthur, creating Hackett Chapel, a black Methodist church, with seventeen faithful members. The "prayer band" began meeting at the Ila Hall on West 7th Street and then in members' homes. Hackett Chapel officially went on the Gulf Coast Black Conference Record in 1920 as St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church. The first church was erected through a grant from the Board of Home Missions from Port Arthur College in 1920 at 848 Lincoln Avenue and opened in 1926. In 1964, as church membership continued to grow, the church trustees began negotiations to purchase the O.C.A.W. Hall – local 254, located at 821 Texas Avenue, as the new church location. On Sunday, November 14, 1965, the first church service was held at the new location and was led by Bishop Noah W. Moore, Jr., resident bishop of the southwestern area. In 1968, Reverend Hubert B. Liedy, Jr., led the church through the United Methodist Church integration process. Through this merger, the church name changed to St. Paul United Methodist Church. Despite their small congregation, St. Paul United Methodist Church served and continues to serve the Westside community and beyond through many service programs, including local and foreign missions, clothing, food and school supply drives, youth mentoring and tutoring, and weekly meals for local residents. Locally and globally, the St. Paul United Methodist Church has served as a beacon of hope for over a century. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 0.8 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.
• Sabine Pass Battleground State Historic Site — 10 mi
  A waterfront park at the mouth of the Sabine where the earthwork of Fort Griffin stood, with a Dowling statue, a Union memorial, wartime magazines and a walkway for fishing.
• Sea Rim State Park — 13 mi
  Texas's far southeast corner: nearly two miles of Gulf shoreline backed by 4,000 acres of marsh, reached by boardwalk or paddle trail, rebuilt after Rita and Ike.
• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 14 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

• Rock Island Baptist Church — steps away
• Port Arthur-Beaumont Interurban Railway — 0.7 mi
• Francis John (Frank) Trost (June 24, 1868 - August 4, 1944) — 0.8 mi
• Arthur Edward Stilwell — 1.3 mi