Team Salvation

When freedom came in 1865, former slaves quickly established two important institutions: churches and schools. Reverend Moses Johns and a small group of believers organized the Colored Baptist Church Zion in 1866 and erected a sanctuary on property located on Guadalupe Street where Tuttle Lumber Company now stands.

Rev. Johns served the congregation until 1873 when Rev. L. Stephens was called to lead the church. According to oral history accounts, the local Ku Klux Klan burned the sanctuary on Guadalupe Street in ca1873 in an attempt to capture a black man who was thought to have been hiding in the church. Oral history accounts suggest that the nineteenth century pulpit still used in the present sanctuary was rescued from that fire.

In 1881, the congregation purchased the lot at 219 Comal Street where Old First Baptist still stands. The Hays County Deeds book indicates that trustees of the Colored Missionary Baptist Church, Oll Burleson, Dora Dusta, Lucky McQueen, and John Thomas, purchased a lot from Mrs. Julia Ann Travis for the sum of fifty cash and three promissory notes of fifty dollars each “payable respectively—October the 4th 1881, April 4th 1882 and October 4th 1882.”(Deed Book). By 1881, the church had changed its name from Colored Baptist Church Zion to Colored Missionary Church.

First Baptist was established by former slaves, and many of them were still alive in 1908 when the Comal Street (now MLK) edifice was built.
In addition to the vicissitudes of time, the massive Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rally in San Marcos on July 25, 1924, may have contributed to the decline in the city’s African-American population, Holt said. Gachot said the KKK rally attracted 35,000 people to San Marcos, double the town’s population.

Eddie Durham (1906-1987), famed and prolific composer, arranger, and player of jazz music, was born in San Marcos and, according to the Texas Historical Commission, developed the first amplified guitar.

About eight years ago, when Gachot taught architecture and drafting at Texas State, he and a student, in collaboration with Holt, created designs for the Old First Baptist Church that call for converting the building to a community center. According to the plans, the first floor of the building would accommodate dining, dancing, art classrooms, a kitchen, an office, and a day care facility. The second floor would include an entry porch, art gallery, and theater. The building’s third floor would include computer labs and classrooms for youth mentoring.



“A lot of kids are lost, they need guidance, and that was the purpose of that, and I think Elvin had a brilliant idea there,” Gachot said.

Gachot said renovating the old church will require a lot of money, and he said Hays County, the city, and caretakers of the Calaboose Museum and the Old First Baptist Church should work together to leverage funds for the effort.

This is future home of the Dora Lee Brady Community Center.