|
We began in 1874 in a one-room log cabin just west of Austin. The building was a school during the week and a church on Sunday. Circuit riders from several different denominations came to preach to the small community congregation.
In 1923, the Presbyterian seminary assigned a minister to the church and it became a mission of Austin's University Presbyterian Church. In 1928, a stone building was erected by the men in the community. The City of Austin Fire Department gave the church a bell, cast in 1877 and used for 40 years to call volunteers fireman. From that time on, the bell could be heard through the halls on Sunday morning, calling people to worship. That same bell, more than 60 years later, still rings at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church.
The church outgrew two physical facilities, and in September 1985, the present buildings were dedicated, with some 35 acres for growth.
The real spirit of Westlake Hills Presbyterian church lies not in the building complex, but in its members and pastoral leadership. We strive to grow, not just in numbers, but in quality of faith. It is that spirit that has brought us from the handful of people who worshiped in the one-room schoolhouse to more that 2,000 members in the church family today.
EANES SCHOOL and CHAPEL A log cabin build on property in 1872 was the first Eanes school. In 1874 the school was moved to a one-room frame structure on the adjacent 2-acre tract given by William & Sophia Teague. Itinerant ministers conducted worship services in the schoolhouse, and a community cemetery was located nearby. Eanes Chapel, organized in 1923 by University Presbyterian Church in Austin, erected a stone building in 1928. It was purchases in 1956 for classrooms. The Eanes Independent School district, created in 1958, is now (1975) a modern educational complex with over 1,800 students.
Eanes Cummunity Church (Text from the letter)
Office of the president
The Austin Theological Seminary
8/15/29
To Whom It May Concern,
During the month of March 1923, with the assistance of Mr CP McElroy, a student of the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, a church was organized at the Eanes community, about 5 miles west of Austin, with 20 members. The following are the names of those composing membership:
(names of 20 members)
Thirteen of these people came into the church on profession of faith and seven by letter.
Precious Memories by Bruce Marshall Sunday Service in the Eanes Community Church (now Westlake Hills Presbyterain Church) in the late 1930s, as remembered by the artist.
His grandmother, Viola Eanes Marshall, who founded it and her husband, H.B., are at the far right. Their son John is in the center (with the green tie). The artist is the boy in the knickers. In those early days attendance was about a dozen or so, with most people brought by the Marshalls in their ancient Model T Ford.
The title comes from the song Precious Memories (“precious memories, how they linger..”)
|
|
