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The Rev. George Rottenstein held the first Episcopal service in Dallas in a storehouse on May 25, 1856, and organized this parish on St. Matthew's Day, Sept. 21, 1857. The Rt. Rev. Alexander Gregg, first bishop of Texas, visited Dallas in 1860 and conducted services in the Masonic Hall. In 1870 the Rev. Silas Dean Davenport led the congregation in erecting its first church building, a frame structure at Elm and Lamar. St. Matthew's became a cathedral in 1875 when the Rt. Rev. Alexander Charles Garrett, the first missionary bishop of North Texas, chose it as his see church. The growing parish moved to a new brick edifice at Commerce and Kendall in 1877, but that soon became too small. A stone cathedral at Ervay and Canton was occupied in 1895, the year the Diocese of Dallas was created, and consecrated in 1899, just 25 years after Bishop Garrett's consecration. The Rev. Hudson Stuck, benefactor of children, was then dean of the cathedral. The very Rev. Harry Tunis Moore, dean of St. Matthew's in 1907-1917, became second bishop of Dallas when Bishop Garrett died in 1924. In 1929, the congregation moved to the former St. Mary's College Chapel, at this site. By 1976, the original six-member parish numbered over 1300. |
