Through Flood & Fire: Travis Park United Methodist Church Historic Renovations Over the Last Century
TRAVIS PARK UMC HISTORY
August 7, 2024
Summary by Bobbi Kroll, Travis Park UMC Historian & Archivist
Summer/Fall 2024: Travis Park Church folks are adjusting to a new location for three months (fingers crossed) of renovation. Has this ever happened before? Yes. Twice, as a matter of fact.
In 1920, gifted leader Arthur J. Moore was appointed pastor of Travis Park UMC. During his six-year tenure, the church building was reconditioned and enlarged. Renovation added a balcony and a pipe organ and switched the orientation of the sanctuary: The altar, pulpit, and choir were moved from the west to the south end of the sanctuary. During the eighteen months of renovation, the congregation worshipped in a tabernacle [their name for the structure] at the corner of Pecan and St. Mary’s Streets where the Greyhound Bus Station now stands. The tabernacle was built in one day by men of the San Antonio Methodist churches. It was a wooden structure with a dirt floor, large pot-bellied stoves, and electric fans.
A few months into this sojourn, on September 9, 1921, a “100-year flood” of the San Antonio River struck the city. Water flowed through the tabernacle, into Pecan Street and down St. Mary’s Street. The flood’s height reached the Gunter Hotel awning. Clean-up included fetching Travis Park Church children’s chairs from atop that awning. The pastor’s desk was swept from the tabernacle and never recovered. Loss of church records up to that time are attributed to the flood.
In February 1922, a Diamond Jubilee of Protestantism in San Antonio was held in the tabernacle. Several denominations (Presbyterians, Baptists, Disciples of Christ, along with the hosting Methodists) met for services with prominent speakers from each denomination. This celebration proclaimed, “Protestant Christianity is the champion of human liberty, physical, intellectual, and religious.” Toward the end of the last night of meetings, eight entirely white-clad figures marched down the aisle, delivered a letter to the speaker, and exited through a side door. The letter was from the “San Antonio Knights of the Ku Klux Klan No. 31, Realm of Texas” and included a $100 bill, equivalent to almost $2,000 in today’s economy. The letter expressed the Klan’s support for Protestant Christianity and the separation of church and state. Pastor Arthur J. Moore is reported to have said that strong pressure was put on the ministers by prominent men in the community and that it was difficult to stay out of the Klan. Methodist bishops and the Methodist publication Texas Christian Advocate strongly opposed the Klan.
On September 12, 1922, the congregation left the tabernacle and moved into their newly remodeled church where they resumed involvement in many activities of care for those around them–their neighbors–that characterize the church to this day.
Early morning of October 25, 1955, a fire was reported at Travis Park Church. The origin was traced to a basement pantry from which point it burned through the sanctuary floor, destroyed the organ, the altar rail, and some pews. The entire building was rendered useless. Pastor Kenneth Copeland “knew that we had to rebuild or move and build brand new….” In this crisis, he faced his “moment of greatest frustration.” He sought the encouragement of Bishop Smith. In that meeting, Pastor Copeland expressed his fears and lack of knowledge to the bishop. The bishop told him, “You have laymen in your church…who know more about raising money and architectural drawings…than you will ever need to know. That’s not your business. It’s your business to love them, preach to them, pastor them. If you do that, they will build the church.” That was exactly what Pastor Copeland needed to hear to strengthen him. The planning committee selected to guide the church in its decision-making offered several options to the congregation at an open meeting on October 30. Based on that polling, a report and recommendation were submitted. At the Quarterly Conference on January 22, 1956, the vote on the recommendation was unanimous. The congregants voted to stay and rebuild.
While the sanctuary was restored and other renovation was taking place, morning services were held in the Texas Theatre (demolished in 1983) at 175 E Houston Street. Evening services were held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Sunday school classes met in several locations close by. The church was reopened September 7, 1958.
We can look back at the fortitude and vision of our church ancestors as examples while we now experience changed plans and inconveniences in the months ahead. They had longer periods of interruption but knew it was for the sake of their neighbors and God’s kingdom that they carried out these renovations. Now it’s our turn. To God be the glory.
Source: We Finish to Begin by Josephine Forman, pp41-43 and 63-68, summary by B. Kroll