David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, Austin

image_pdfimage_print

This is a special edition of Deep in the Hearts of Texans featuring historic Black Texas Baptist churches in celebration of Black History Month.

The following responses were provided by Pastor Joseph Parker of David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin, with additional information by Editor Eric Black. Parker is the church’s seventh and longest tenured pastor having served more than 30 years. The congregation meets at 2211 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

When and why was David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church founded?

In 1924, a few Christians living in the community of Ceiling Hills—located just south of the city of Austin, near the banks of the Colorado River and near what is now the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport—became concerned about the way the boys of the community were observing the Lord’s Day by playing marbles. As a result of their concern, a meeting was called by neighbors at the residence of the Horace Davis family.

A subsequent meeting was called, and under the able supervision of two ministers—Rev. Ben Wroe and Rev. Connie Alexander—a church was organized on April 27, 1924. The church was named Davis Chapel in honor of the Horace Davis family on whose farm it was organized. There were 28 persons who made up the first membership roll.

In another meeting, the Rev. L.M. Marshall was called to lead this newly organized body of Christians. A blacksmith shop was the first dwelling used until Oct. 30, 1926, when the pastor and his members moved from the Ceiling Hills Community to the racially segregated East Austin/Chestnut Community of the city of Austin.

A tabernacle was erected at the corner of 14th Street and Chestnut Avenue. The name of the church was changed to David Chapel. In 1940, the old tabernacle was torn down and a new stucco structure was built. In 1959, a new facility was built five blocks north at Chestnut Avenue and 19th Street—now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

What was a struggle and a triumph during the church’s history?

In 1958, David Chapel’s membership outgrew its building and sought funding from white-owned banks in Austin to buy a nearby tract of land and build a new facility. The banks refused to lend the money.

Worship service at David Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Austin (Screen shot from the church’s Facebook photo album).

Fortunately, the Saint John Regular Missionary Baptist District Association—an association of African American churches in Central Texas organized in 1867 that still exists—loaned David Chapel the money.

On the first Sunday in January 1959, the congregation moved into the new edifice, and the congregation was able to pay off the mortgage fully 10 years later.


Sign up for our weekly edition and get all our headlines in your inbox on Thursdays


The planning and construction of the new edifice also were provided by persons of African American descent. In fact, The Austin Chronicle pointed out the project was “an all-Black enterprise in the thick of Fifties Southern segregation.”

The architect was John S. Chase, the first African American to graduate from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in architecture. Since “no architectural firms would hire him … David Chapel became his first big project,” The Austin Chronicle noted.

Chase’s plans for the building originated from his master’s thesis, “Progressive Architecture for the Negro Baptist Church.” The building contractor was Oliver B. Street.

Austin-based online magazine Sight Lines described Chase’s design of David Chapel as “reflect[ing] the essence of Chase’s thesis on modernist architecture for the Black church, how design had the effect of freeing congregants from a fraught past, and how the church’s building could reflect forward-looking aspirations. It is one of the most significant works of modernist architecture in Austin by any measure.”

David Chapel has outgrown its current space and now is planning to relocate and build new facilities on a 17-acre tract of land the congregation owns in East Austin on Springdale Road near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

What makes David Chapel proud?

David Chapel strives to be a prayerful, loving and tithing church with a heart for the community that shows its love for Christ by offering God’s hospitality, hope and healing to its members and others.

The church is recognized widely as a voice for the community and a church consisting of Jesus-followers led in a community-oriented direction, using its ministries and human and financial resources to become a bastion of leadership for the Chestnut Neighborhood, for the Eastside, for the Black community and for Austin at large, Central Texas and beyond, being a church with a heart for the community, near and far.

What is David Chapel’s impact on its community?

David Chapel conducts numerous ministries, including Celebrate Recovery, feeding ministries, financial assistance and education, prenatal education, legal ministry, community development, incarceration ministry, a cold weather shelter and many more.

The congregation was also involved in developing a Leadership Development Academy and Texas Congregations United for Empowerment.


We seek to connect God’s story and God’s people around the world. To learn more about God’s story, click here.

Send comments and feedback to Eric Black, our editor. For comments to be published, please specify “letter to the editor.” Maximum length for publication is 300 words.

More from Baptist Standard