Christ Church Cathedral, Houston is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

for the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. The congregation was established in 1839, when

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

was still an independent

republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

. It is the oldest extant congregation in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

and one of the oldest non-

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

churches in Texas. Many Episcopal churches in Houston and the surrounding area were founded as missions of Christ Church, such as Trinity Church, Houston, founded in 1893.

History

The first known Episcopal clergy to preach in Houston was Reverend Richard Salmon, who arrived in Texas in 1836 and first visited Houston in 1838. At that time, the Texas government permitted church meetings in the Capitol Building since there were no churches yet established in Houston. Christ Church was founded on March 16, 1839, making it the first chartered congregation in Houston. The principal founder of Christ Church was William Fairfax Gray. A native of

Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 27,982. It is south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond, Virginia, R ...

, Gray was a vestryman of St. George's Church in that city. After passing the bar in Virginia in 1835, he traveled to Texas, where he worked as a land agent and helped to organize the interim Texas Revolutionary government. By 1837, he arrived in Houston with plans to establish a law office and moved his family there from Virginia. The first permanent church building for Christ Church was erected in 1847, overseen by the rector, Charles Gillette. Located at the northeast corner of Texas Avenue and Fannin Street, Christ Church lay at the edge of town. The small Gothic church was clad in red brick and capped by a steeple. A gallery overlooked the nave with a wide central bank of pews, flanked by two smaller banks of pews. The Christ Church congregation increased in number so fast that the building was at capacity within a decade. In 1857, Reverend W. T. D. Dalzell was appointed as the new rector and the vestry solicited subscriptions for the construction of a rectory. Bering Brothers constructed a main hall with two stories and two small wings fronting Texas Avenue, with a double gallery attached to the facade. Located at 1117 Texas Avenue in

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45 ...

, the current building dates from 1893. In 1938 the building suffered a major fire. A

firefighter A firefighter (or fire fighter or fireman) is a first responder trained in specific emergency response such as firefighting, primarily to control and extinguish fires and respond to emergencies such as hazardous material incidents, medical in ...

sprayed down the ornately carved

rood screen The rood screen (also choir screen, chancel screen, or jubé) is a common feature in late medieval church architecture. It is typically an ornate partition between the chancel and nave, of more or less open tracery constructed of wood, stone, o ...

to prevent its destruction, and it survived with only minor damage. Everett Titcomb composed the anthem "Behold Now, Praise the Lord" for the rededication and centennial of Christ Church. Christ Church became the cathedral of the

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

in 1949. Presently, Christ Church has a baptized membership of more than 3000 communicants.

Clergy

Christ Church's first rector was the Rev’d Charles Gillett of Connecticut. He led the congregation to build its first church building in 1845. James P. deWolfe was the church's rector from 1934 to 1940. He rebuilt the edifice and started many programs before going on to be the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. From 2013-2022, the dean was the Very Reverend Barkley S. Thompson.

List of missionaries

* Reverend Robert Martin Chapman, missionary (1838−1839)Johnston (1964), p. 233. * Reverend Henry B. Goodwin, rector pro tempore (1839−1840) * Reverend Benjamin Eaton, missionary (1841)

List of rectors

* Reverend Charles Gillett (1843−1852) * Reverend Henry Sampson (1852) * Reverend J.J. Nicholson (1854−1855) * Reverend W.T.D. Dalzell (1857−1861) * Reverend Edwin A. Wagner(1862−1864)

Cathedral House Episcopal School

The school opened in 1986 on the campus of Christ Church Cathedral with a philosophy grounded in the teachings of

Maria Montessori Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( ; ; 31 August 1870 – 6 May 1952) was an Italians, Italian physician and educator best known for her philosophy of education (the Montessori method) and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early a ...

. Classrooms include nursery, movement, toddler, primary and kindergarten.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

*
Cathedral House Episcopal School
{{Religion in Houston Christ Church Houston Episcopal churches in Texas Cathedrals in Houston Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas Churches in Harris County, Texas Buildings and structures in Houston 1893 establishments in Texas Churches completed in 1893 19th-century Episcopal church buildings National Register of Historic Places in Houston Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks