Calvary Episcopal Church - Bastrop, TX - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

"The first Episcopal Bishop of Texas, Alexander Gregg, organized Calvary Episcopal Church on May 5, 1869 at the petition of his friend, Mrs. J. C. Higgins, naming it after her parish church in Tarboro, North Carolina. In the beginning, Calvary held services one Sunday a month in the local Methodist church, where Mrs. Higgins’ husband, Col. J. C. Higgins, was a member. Mrs. Higgins began teaching her friends to chant the Psalms and to sing the Te Deum and hymns of the Episcopal church. A small organ was carried from the Higgins’ home to the church, which caused quite a stir in the town since some of the old-timers thought it a sin to use a “machine” in the church. Until then, only a tuning fork had been used. When the Rev. John Phillips, a Methodist minister, left his denomination to become the first Rector of Calvary, it caused dissension between the two congregations, and Calvary was no longer permitted to use the Methodist building. At that time, Col. J.C. Higgins left the Methodist church to become an Episcopalian. Services were held in a building owned by Col. Higgins for a dozen years until tragedy in the Higgins’ family inspired the construction of a church on Spring Street.

Col. Higgins’ son, Horace, was a popular young attorney and the partner of the future Gov. J.D. Sayers, was a lay reader of Calvary. When he died of typhoid fever in January of 1880, Col. Higgins put the force of his wealth into constructing a new building as a memorial to him. The cornerstone was laid on August 11, 1881, and the first services in the new church were held April 25, 1883. By 1887, its interior furnishings had been completed, and the plaster walls had been added.

In 1997, the needs of the growing congregation under The Rev. Ken Kesselus, native son and twenty-sixth Rector of Calvary, and the desire to welcome newcomers while preserving the old church, led to a decision to expand the church building. The original part of the church became the altar area, and the addition formed the nave. The design won an award for the architects who provided it. Materials taken out of the old church were used as much as possible, including the stained glass windows in the nave and the old sun-dried bricks, cleaned by the congregation, were used in the projection behind the new altar. The first services in the completed building were held in 1998.

In 2003, during the tenure of The Rev. Matt Zimmerman, the church added a preschool to its family (www.calvaryschool.net) which is now accredited and has grown to a present enrollment of approximately one hundred and twenty children ranging from 3 year olds through fifth grade, with plans to add sixth grade in the 2016/17 school year. In 2006 the church purchased the old First National Bank building across the street from the church to expand the space available for the Parish Hall, staff offices, and other program needs of the parish. It has given Calvary frontage to Main Street, drawing the community into the fellowship of the congregation and increasing its outreach to the community. Half of a two-story building connected to the bank building was included in the purchase and was converted by the church into a retail center for specialty shops and artisan businesses. Named the R. A. Green Mercantile building, it is managed by its board of directors that form an LLC reporting to the church and contributes significantly toward repaying the debt incurred to purchase the bank building."

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