Argyle United Methodist Church

History of Argyle United Methodist Church

The settlement of Argyle was developed in the Eastern Cross Timbers area of Texas, a thin wedge of densegrowing trees that stretched from Waco north to the Red River. The first settlers arrived about 1850. By l867, 14 families were living in what was called the Peters Colony development which predated the town. Peters was the name of the development corporation which brought new settlers into the region.  Settlers did not pay cash for their land, but were required to live on the land three years, cultivate 10 to 15 acres, have their land surveyed and plainly marked, and build a good and comfortable cabin. 

Between 1880 and 1882, Texas and Pacific Railroad laid track from Aubrey through Denton and Roanoke on to Fort Worth. On October 17, 1881, Argyle officially became a town, organized to serve the railroad. The depot and settlement houses were built on West Front Street, just opposite Denton Street.  A large portion of downtown Argyle burned to the ground in 1895 in a fire which began in a dry goods store and swept through neighboring buildings. In l910, a number of buildings were destroyed when a tornado ravaged the community.

Argyle Methodist Church was chartered in 1894 with twenty-seven members. The first pastor was Reverend  Blueford Henry Webster, a Methodist circuit rider from Mississippi. Early worship services for the congregation were conducted in the Argyle schoolhouse.  In 1898, Church trustees purchased land atop "Methodist Hill" from the Texas and Pacific Railroad. The first sanctuary, a frame structure, was built soon afterward during the pastorate of Reverend J. R. Atchley who completed much of the carpentry work with the assistance of other church members. They drove six wagons to the Dallas planning mill to bring back lumber to build the pews. Two of the original pews remain in the church on Methodist Hill. In l912 members acquired a parsonage on the northeast corner of Denton and Cypress Streets. Having a parsonage allowed the circuit riding minister to conduct Sunday morning services at his home church and then go in the afternoon to other churches.

The Graham Baptist Church, established in 1876, moved to Argyle in 1891. During the early years, neither the Methodists nor the Baptists in Argyle could afford a full time preacher, so the pulpit was filled one Sunday by a Methodist preacher,  the next by a Baptist. “We all just went wherever they were holding the praying and singing,” according to one resident. For 78 years, Argyle Methodist shared a minister with other small congregations on a circuit.

In 1986 the sanctuary was renovated and enlarged and a reception area, offices, library, kitchen and social hall were added. The seven original stained glass windows commemorating the stages of the life of Christ, given in memory of Susan Savage by her family, were reinstalled in the enlarged sanctuary.

The first worship service in the new building was conducted on Palm Sunday, 2009. The first phase consist of 18,000 square feet - nearly two times the size of the church on Methodist Hill. The new structure includes a multipurpose worship space, nursery, kitchen, classrooms, restrooms and staff offices, as well as a large parking lot. Other phases for the campus will be developed in the years ahead to handle further church expansion.

From its humble beginnings over 100 years ago when 27 individuals followed God’s call to establish Argyle Methodist Church, today a new generation of faithful followers looks forward to a second hundred years of ministry and service to the Argyle community, by opening the doors of a new church campus to share God’s love with one another. Welcome to Argyle United Methodist Church.

(Compiled from Church histories by Charlotte Guest and the Rev. George A. Lewis)