First United Methodist Church of Terrell - Terrell, TX - This Old Church on Waymarking.com

The Rev. J.W. Fields (1817-1886) organized this church in 1873, the same year the Texas & Pacific Railroad opened a station at the Terrell townsite. A frame church was built and the Sunday school started in 1877. In 1900, when the membership had grown to 495, a larger brick edifice replaced the first sanctuary. This fellowship helped support Wesley College, located here from 1905 to 1911, and built the City Tabernacle, site of public gatherings from 1905 to 1915. Four sessions of the North Texas Methodist Conference have been hosted by this congregation.

A website devoted to James Edward Flanders, one of the architects, provides some additional information:

In October 1876, the Methodists of Terrell purchased the property on the southwest corner of Hattie and College streets and the following year, constructed a frame building to house the congregation. By 1900 they had outgrown this building and plans were made to construct a new sanctuary. The frame building was moved into the street where church services continued to be held as the new building was constructed. This extant structure was the first brick church in Terrell and the first services were held there on Sunday, September 16, 1900. It was Flanders first church of the new century and it marked the beginning of a another field of opportunity for him. A contemporary account of the building described its architecture as "complete and elegant" and deemed the building the "banner church edifice in the (Methodist) conference". State Senator Robert L. Warren was on the building committee and he later engaged JEF to build his home in Terrell. This house, also extant and on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1903. The Terrell church, which cost between $12,000 and $14,000, was designed during Flanders brief partnership with Sevrin C. Skielvig who probably influenced the interior design of the church as the style is unlike any other known Flanders churches. The exterior of the building was Victorian. Flanders designed a quarter circle covered portico facing the corner of the property as the entry to the building. The portico terminated on both sides at the base of a tower where the doorways to the building are placed. A fanciful cupola rests on the peak of the red tin shingle roof. Exposed steel posts and the structural ceiling beams they support dominate the interior of the building. An interesting effect can be seen in dove-shaped openings in the braces between the piers and beams. The ceiling is a stark combination of beams, angles and wooden planks. Cathedral light fixtures were added during a 1973 renovation.

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