Commercial Roofing Contractors in Saint Paul, TX

St. Paul opened its doors in 1929 but closed due to financial struggles.

MEXIA, Texas — When you think of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Texas, the first that may come to mind may be Wiley College, Prairie View A&M University or Texas Southern University.

But there was a small Black college built in the middle of Mexia, TX named Saint Paul Normal and Industrial College and it impacted many lives for the short amount of time it was open.

The story of St. Paul began with Reverend Lee Wilder Thomas, a Limestone County native born in 1873.

Before helping found St. Paul, Thomas himself graduated from Wiley College, another HBCU in Marshall, TX.

He met his wife, Clementine “Clemmie” Estella Ross, in Limestone County and they had 13 children.

Today's descendants of Rev. Thomas weren't even aware that he founded a Black college in Mexia.

It came to a surprise to Schuyler Carter, a great-grandchild of Thomas, and her family when she found out the history of her great-grandfather. But with his history of always giving back to the community, she says it wasn't far from the man he was.

"It is so vital for the next generation to know what these people did to invest in the Black community. While there's no building where the school was, I don't believe it's purpose diminished at all and people need to know that," Carter explained.

The idea for St. Paul arose in 1906 with members of the Primitive Baptist Church.

Then in 1912, Thomas found oil on the land he owned and struck big financially. With so many Black people residing in Mexia at the time, Mexia native and historian Dan Keeling says a lot of Black people struck big too.

“When you get to the hill in Mexia where the college is, it's more dry, more airy, with more mesquite trees. That's where the majority of Black people lived. So when they found the oil, the majority of people who got money from the oil boom were Black families.”

With his newly found fortune, Thomas wanted to invest in education and the progression of the Black community. So he invested $9,000 of his oil earnings (over $150,000 in today's U.S. dollar) to build St. Paul Normal and Industrial College for the Mexia community.

Many other Black locals also pitched in however they could to make this college happen.

“Field slaves and sharecroppers who didn't have much money, not much means, took their earned means to build this college,” Primitive Baptist Crunch minister John Richardson shared.

Construction was completed in February 1929 and the school was then opened in September 1929.

The school opened with 35 students and had a prime focus on education while also providing trade courses. While it was open, the Black community thrived and the school even hosted local events.

But due to the Great Depression, teachers were sometimes not compensated in full, bills were paid late, and the school’s debt grew.

“Our obligations continued to increase” and “...for years we were unable to keep up on the interest on the principal of the main debt," Rev. Thomas explained in the Mexia Newspaper.

In an article written by Carter, she explained how the property was foreclosed upon in 1940. Thankfully, Rev. Thomas saved it again, arranging (along with two other pastors) for new financing. Things looked up. Members of many Primitive Baptist churches in the area fervently raised money and paid off the new debt faster than expected.

"Rev. Thomas was able to sign a note with the estate of a local banker and actually got to college back. They had a ten year note and they got it back in three years,” Keeling said.

Things were looking up for the school for a while but it still wasn't enough to keep the doors open.

The school eventually closed for good in 1953.

While all that can be seen of St. Paul are broken pillars and carved in bricks, the families of people who taught at or attended the school are still in Mexia today.

Mexia local Bill Proctor said my father was a teacher here at the college for quite a while.

Primitive Baptist Church minister Henry V. Chambers Jr said his father received a certificate from St. Paul and this school will forever be in his heart.

The Primitive Baptist Church is the last building standing. They now own the 31 acres of land the college was built on.

The church ministers have now made it their mission to finish what reverend L.W. Thomas started over 70 years ago.

"We are now here to resurrect that, and to make it what it should be which is a recognized, legitimate higher education college for young people who are trying to better themselves educationally so that they can better themselves economically,”

After Keeling spent two years submitting proposals to the Texas Historical Commission to recognize St. Paul as an historical marker, it was approved to have a historical marker put in front of where the school once stood.

The unveiling of the marker is expected to happen sometime in the summer. The hope for the future of St. Paul is that it will be open and available for the Black community in Central Texas again within the next few years.

An apartment builder that’s finishing up a high-rise on the edge of Highland Park is ready to kick off two more projects.

Mill Creek Residential Trust is completing its Modera Katy Trail tower on U.S. Highway 75.

And the developer plans to break ground in the coming weeks on a downtown Dallas apartment high-rise and a retail and rental community near White Rock Lake.

The two new projects — plus another in West Dallas — build off their access to public parks and trails.

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Mill Creek’s planned 16-story downtown Dallas tower at St. Paul and Wood streets is a block away from where construction is underway on Harwood Park, an almost 4-acre green space being built on the east side of downtown.

“Our building will benefit most from what Harwood Park will do,” Mill Creek senior managing director Michael Blackwell said. “Our site sits right in the middle of where all these public and private projects have happened.

“It’s created an environment from an urban living perspective that feels a lot like the mature markets we have been working in for a long time.”

The half-block building site is between AT&T’s new Discovery District and the East Quarter mixed-use development being built on the eastern edge of downtown. The Farmers Market is just a few blocks away.

Mill Creek is developing the building in partnership with Dallas’ Hamilton Properties.

“The design of the project fits exactly with Hamilton’s goals of embracing and adding vibrancy to the street with a dynamic corner restaurant space, engaging street-level amenities and apartment homes with balconies wrapping the project from the second floor all the way to the 16th floor along Wood, St. Paul and Young streets,” Hamilton Properties’ Ted Hamilton said.

The 333-unit Modera St. Paul apartment tower will take more than two years to build. It was designed by WDG Architecture, and Portland-based Vida Design is doing the interiors.

“On St. Paul Street, we have the two corners that are for retail,” Blackwell said. “We are activating that entire stretch of St. Paul.

“I feel like there is remarkable opportunity for this building right in the heart of our city.”

At the same time Mill Creek is starting the downtown building, it is breaking ground for another rental community just south of White Rock Lake. Located at East Grand and Gaston avenues, the mixed-use project connects to the Santa Fe Trail.

The six-story, 285-unit Modera Trailhead apartment building has a large area for retail shops and restaurants on the ground level facing the trailhead.

“We are talking to potential retail and restaurant tenants, and the response to that has been very encouraging,” Blackwell said. “We are trying everything we can do to activate the area along the trail.

“We want to create this unique place.”

Dallas architect GFF designed the building, working with landscape architect TBG Partners.

Mill Creek is already developing another rental community in West Dallas that will be connected to a new riverside park. The Modera Trinity building on Beckley Avenue just east of Commerce will have just over 200 apartments.

“We lifted the building up to levee level — the swimming pool and most of the units look over the levee” toward downtown.

“On the Beckley side, we bought the apartments all the way down to the street,” he said.

WDG Architecture designed the project, which will be connected to the Trinity Overlook Park.

“We will deliver the first units next year,” Blackwell said.

The builder is completing the Modera Katy Trail apartment high-rise on the west side of U.S. 75 just south of Mockingbird Lane.

The 14-story residential tower has 217 luxury rental units and is on the eastern edge of Highland Park.

“We are substantially complete on the building, and leasing has gone well,” Blackwell said. “That’s the first high-rise building we’ve done in Dallas and a source of inspiration for what we are doing downtown.

“People in the building are excited to live on the Katy Trail and have an attachment to the Park Cities and the M streets,” he said. “We are getting more established adults and a few students from SMU.”

Editor’s note: This is the first in a new video series by the City of Round Rock to highlight impactful locations in the City’s history.

Along the recently-designated Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Round Rock stands a one-room church that has withstood the test of time.

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church is not the biggest church in Round Rock, nor does it have the most congregants; however, long-time member and Round Rock resident Ella Sauls Morrison says the congregation has a “small but mighty” reputation that continues today.

The church was founded in 1885 as the first African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church in Round Rock. The founding members’ names are etched in stone at the church’s entrance. While many of the families still have generations living in Round Rock today, the church has seen significant changes — including a move across Interstate 35.

Just a half century after the church’s founding, Round Rock was already beginning to grow at a rapid pace. The original location of the church, which was constructed of wood from an old barn donated by a local farmer, was at the southwest corner of RM 620 and Interstate 35, where Sprouts and McDonald’s are currently located. When Interstate 35 was built, the church had to relocate to its present location on North Sheppard Street. Sauls Morrison’s father, Otto Sauls, and his brother secured a $500 loan with Farmers State Bank to purchase the land from their sister to build the new church, and the new building was completed in June 1958.

The church today features some of the original church’s lumber, windows, lightning rods, pews, altar, pulpit and piano. The church is missing its original iron bell, which was stolen by local teenagers during the move.

The church has regularly scheduled Sunday services, prayer services and opens its doors for community meetings and prayer vigils. St. Paul A.M.E.’s mission is to “provide spiritual and religious teachings and fellowship to the community and all who enter.”

The AME church was created at the turn of the 19^th century by black parishioners from St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, who had been confined to the gallery of the church during services. The church’s current pastor, the Rev. Sharian Brown-Taylor, said the congregation continues to find its roots in social action. In 2021, the congregation helped push for Sheppard Street to be designated Martin Luther King Jr. Way, and held a ceremony with the City of Round Rock to install the signs.

“The various people that attended, you didn’t see one color — you saw the community come together, and those are the things that are important and those are the things that the church should represent,” Brown-Taylor said.

Quadrant Investment Properties is adding to its portfolio. The company, led by Chad Cook, has acquired Saint Paul Place, a 22-story, 273,217-square-foot tower at St. Paul Street and Ross Avenue in the Dallas Arts District. The seller was Goddard Investment Group, which owns another Ross Avenue asset—Fountain Place.

Built in 1983, Saint Paul Place is the home of D Magazine Partners, which occupies more than two floors in the building. Most of the tenants, though, are smaller, with an average space of about 5,000 square feet. And that was part of the appeal, Cook said: “We like being able to control our own destiny.”

Cook first approached Goddard about buying Saint Paul Place two years ago, but there was too much of a differential between the ask and the bid. Since then, market conditions have changed, with an urban renewal sparked in part by the opening of the nearby Klyde Warren Park.

“Saint Paul Place has always been one of our favorite buildings,” Cook said. “We could not be more excited to have the opportunity to own it, especially at a time when the Arts District is experiencing so much momentum. … It’s hard to find buildings with this much character and such a strong, diverse tenant base.”

This is this seventh acquisition for Cook, who founded QIP in 2012 after serving as vice president of acquisitions for Hillwood. Other local assets include Preston Trail Atrium, 2811 McKinney, 3400 Carlisle, Hillcrest Oaks, and The Centrum, a nearly 400,000-square-foot icon that’s getting a big makeover. Improvements are also planned for Saint Paul Place, which is about 78 percent occupied. They include lobby upgrades, a tenant conference center, and a lounge with a balcony overlooking the Dallas Museum of Art’s sculpture garden. A building-wide spec-suite program also will be implemented.

“Saint Paul Place is a trophy asset located in the middle of Dallas’ urban markets—the CBD and Upton,” said QIP Vice President Nick Cassavechia, who joined the company from HFF in 2014. ““The young talent moving to and living in this area is an important factor in current and prospective tenant’s site selection, and we feel Saint Paul Place is positioned well for this demand.”

HFF represented Goddard in the sale. JLL put together the financing. Going forward, Saint Paul Place will be leased by the CBRE team of Celeste Fowden, Seth Thatcher, and Ben Davis.

The Texas Historical Commission on Thursday awarded St. Paul United Methodist Church the highest honor of all — an official Texas Historical Marker.

The designation honored St. Paul as an important part of local history, marking it with an official stamp of honor.

For 92-year-old Vernice Moore, the dedication ceremony was a moment she thought she would never see.

“It’s been so long in the making,” she said. “I didn’t think I’d get to see it, but thank God I did.”

St. Paul was erected as the first black United Methodist Church in Port Arthur during its construction in 1920. Since its inception the church has undergone integration, name changes, relocation, merges and changes in leadership.

Moore was born in what was then Hackett Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church in 1928. She was born into a family full of faith and community.

“I’m so elated,” she said. “I’m tearful because I didn’t think I was going to see this day and to be surrounded by my family, I’m just so happy.”

While long-standing members of the church gathered around the soon-to-be unveiled marker, the Rev. James Berry voiced his joy for the past.

“This is history,” he said. “It goes back over 105 years. It came through the Great Depression, it came through great struggles and the church has moved twice. There is even a story that the gentlemen came together and gave a thousand dollars each to make sure that every need was met in the church before vowing to never let it be leveled again.”

Berry is referring to the 17 faithful and devoted members noted as the “prayer band” that erected the first church in 1926 off of Lincoln Avenue.

“Our church serves the community,” he said. “We are very active in the community, and this is an important moment for all of us.”

Berry started at St. Paul’s eight months ago. With an illustrious past behind him, he is looking forward to the church’s next 100 years.

“I want to be more involved with the community,” he said. “They’ve done such a great job already, but we want to try to gain a family development center, add basketball goals and include more within our community.”

St. Paul will commemorate the event with a Centennial Marker Celebration at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at 821 Freeman Avenue in Port Arthur.