{"nrhp_refnum":"12000196","name":"Christ Episcopal Church","other_names":["Christ Church"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"206 Cypress St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Matagorda","county":"Matagorda County","state":"TX","lat":28.69419985600007,"lon":-95.96754963699999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2012-04-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story, front-gabled vernacular frame church with a bell tower at 206 Cypress Street in Matagorda, Matagorda County, Texas. The current building dates to an 1886 reconstruction after a hurricane, on a site occupied since 1860 by a congregation founded in 1839.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the church is an excellent, increasingly rare example of a 19th-century vernacular frame church with Gothic Revival and Classical Revival influences. It has kept its 1886 appearance to a remarkable degree, including salvaged furnishings from the original 1841 church. It is nominated at the local level under Criterion C, with Criteria Consideration A for religious properties. The congregation is also described as the oldest Episcopal congregation in Texas.","narrative":"Christ Episcopal Church is a small white frame sanctuary at the corner of Cypress and Lewis streets in Matagorda, near the mouth of the Colorado River. Its steep gabled roof, square bell tower and lancet windows with burgundy and gold stained glass reflect the simple church form that many early Texas settlers adopted. The congregation dates to 1839, and a first church was finished in 1841. Storms in 1854, 1875 and 1886 damaged or destroyed successive buildings, each rebuilt largely from salvaged materials and to the earlier design. The present building is dated to 1886, the last rebuilding that can be traced through photographs and accounts. Inside are an altar, communion rail, pews and other items salvaged from the 1841 church, and a bell inscribed 1853 hangs in the tower. Later changes include a widened front entry in 1987 and attached and nearby parish halls. It was listed for its architecture as a rare surviving example of a once-common type of church.","period_of_significance":"1886","architect_builder":"unknown","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Gothic Revival; Classical Revival","criteria":["C"],"status_note":"Still in use as a church; the form lists current function as religious facility.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:23.790507-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/46/9729/40972946/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_TX/12000196.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000196/f89bb8d91f-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/12000196/f89bb8d91f-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"25or6to4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Episcopal_Church,_Matagorda,_TX.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">25or6to4</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Christ_Episcopal_Church,_Matagorda,_TX.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/40972946","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q107318212"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/texas/matagorda-county/christ-episcopal-church-12000196/"}