A Time of Calling
by Senator Kirk Watson
for the 50th Anniversary of our building
February 9, 2020
Griff asked me to talk a little about the history of our church being here in downtown and some about the purpose or why we would be here and be here in another 50 years.
I’m not sure he knew my special fondness for this specific spot in downtown and the sense I have that there’s—I don’t know the best way to describe it, but a meaning, a sign, a pre-ordained purpose in a church like this one. At the least, a special sense of why we are and should be here.
So a very quick history lesson that I started learning before the 2013 Legislative session and have continued. In that session, I carried and passed some legislation dealing with 3 squares or parks in downtown Austin. Everyone knows them today as Wooldridge Square, Brush, and Republic. They’re owned by the State of Texas, but as far back as 1917, the state “leased” them to the City of Austin. In 2016, the 99-year lease was coming to an end, and so, like I said, I had to learn some things so I could carry the legislation to extend the lease another 99 years.
I was surprised to find out while I was getting ready to file the legislation on three squares, there were originally four squares. And I mean it when I say “originally”. Austin was originally laid out as a city by Edwin Waller. The guy who became Austin’s first mayor. He was sent here by the Republic of Texas’ President Mirabeau Lamar with that job: lay out the new Capital City. In 1839, he created a map of what he’d designed. It was a one-square mile grid. Basically what we now know as Waller Creek to the East, the River on the South, Shoal Creek on the West, and what was then labeled Walnut Street on the North. It’s now 15th street. (The streets that go east and west were named after trees, those going north/south were named after Texas rivers, starting with the Red River.) Of course, he said where the Capitol would be and set out other expectations of locations of things like a jail, courthouse, a university and such.
Important to our history, he also very simply designated some places to be “Public Squares”. Four of them. His map had a square where Brush Square is located in the southeast quadrant. (It’s always been called Brush.) Republic Square (originally named Hamilton at some point) in the southwest quadrant. Wooldridge (Bell Square) in the northwest. The fourth public square was directly east of Wooldridge and directly North of Brush. It’s the block we’re on right now. It was named at some point as Hemphill Square.
The original city plan designated the ½ block just south of Wooldridge Square and the ½ block just south of this one—where we have our parking garage--for a church. The original plan said there should be a church in those two places.
In 1882, Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church, which had formed as a congregation of freed slaves, built on that ½ block. The building was also used for classrooms for an African-American College that later became Samuel Huston College, a predecessor to Huston-Tillotson University. The area along Red River between 8th and 13th Streets was sort of a settlement area of freed slaves.
The church wasn’t without some controversy. There were strong suggestions by some that it might not be an appropriate use of the land to have an African American church. And the enclave of African American freed slaves along Red River was also an issue.
Around 1899, people were looking to make this block a school and the legislature made it available to the city for that use. Austin High School opened here in 1900 and was here until 1925 when it traded space with a junior high school over on Rio Grande. Some folks remember Austin High there at what is now the ACC Rio Grande Campus. Allen Junior High School was here.
Three years later, in 1928, the school board bought the Wesley Chapel. I’m sure it was just a coincidence that 1928 was also when the city passed the city master plan that created a “negro district” in East Austin. I mean that sarcastically. Wesley Methodist Episcopal Church built on the East Side and is still there as the Wesley United Methodist Church.
The junior high school was here until it burned in 1956. That’s when the First Baptist Church enters the picture. There was a long effort that led to a three-way deal involving the state, the school district and the First Baptist Church of Austin. First Baptist owned a piece of land in what’s now the Capitol Complex—what’s basically now the Workforce Commission Building bound by 14th, 15th, San Jacinto and Brazos. Right by the Capitol Building. The state wanted it and would pay the Church $300,000 if the Church would then give that money to the school district for this site. That’s what happened.
The city dealt with some controversy for longer than it should over things like reopening 9th street, which had been closed for the students at Allen Jr. High, but the Church broke ground and, well, it opened in 1970.
Predetermination. Inevitable. Destiny. Fate. God’s plan. His will.
This land, this spot, which was a patch of nowhere until out of nowhere a guy who was designing a town on the edge of frontier labeled it a public gathering place. More than that, he called for it to be proximate to a church. That’s its genesis.
And this ground was in the midst of and at the heart of issues of being a place to gather, welcome others. Issues of discrimination, inclusion, education, some focus on the future. A public use. A focus on people.
And that’s before it became this church.
This is special turf. Just by itself. It’s historical, even if few know the special history. But its current use, as an open, loving, inclusive, happy church that celebrates people for who they are and as part of the love of God, has, more importantly, impacted personal histories.
I’m stuck asking all the time whether our state, our nation, our city is living up to what it was meant to. Is this what was predetermined, inevitable, destiny, fate? God’s will?
It’s awfully chaotic. Messy beyond belief. We feel surrounded by sadness. Nothing easy. Everything feeling like an assault.
What do we do? Where is our rightful place? What will our history be 50 years from now?
I pray people will look back at this place and say it was a significant place. That history will say the next 50 years were even more historical. Sure, there’s a long ago history that’s pretty interesting and involves the very beginning of our state, but I hope people will say this was a place that started with the dream of being, simply put, a “public place” and became known for being such a place, but a public place of truth, that looked at the chaos, mess, controversy around and near it and saw opportunity for healing, salvation and empowerment. A public square that embraced the sadness and made it inclusion, laughter and love. A public place that transformed the difficult by hearing all who want to speak, celebrating an openness to everyone and a willingness to advocate for change.
Where is our rightful place?
It’s an historical spot where we’ve made our home for 50 years. It started as a place for people--a community--to gather and be together. For the next 50 years, it will be the people of this place that writes a history where we can be proud of our purpose under God and how we worship that God.
God Bless you. And Amen.
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