First Presbyterian Church of Lawton

Constructed in 1902, the First Presbyterian Church of Lawton is locally significant for several reasons: it is the oldest brick building in Lawton, a town settled in 1901; it is the oldest place of worship in Lawton, founded only one day after the land opening: and the structure is a well preserved example of turn-of-the-century American-Gothic church architecture, 'typical of many small communities in the region.

The land on which the church was built in 1902 had been Indian land prior to August of 1901. In the Indian treaties signed after the Civil War, the greater part of southwestern Oklahoma was reserved for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Wichita tribes. Whites' land hunger and the culmination of the Peace Policy, however, forced the federal government to open the land to white settlement. In August of 1901 the land was distributed by lottery to lucky homesteaders. Overnight, the town of Lawton emerged from the prairie.

On August 3, 1901, the Oklahoma Territory Presbytery sent Reverend Thomas J. Irwin to Lawton with instructions to organize a church. On August 4, Irwin held the town's first church services, convening on prairie sod across the street from the United States Land Office. With only a tent for cover from the August sun, the First Presbyterian Church of Lawton was born.

Members of the congregation soon desired a less precarious location for their church; on August 25th the church tent was moved to a lot at 716 D Avenue, purchased by John H. Porter for $340. Official organization of the church followed quickly thereafter. On September 1, 1901, twenty residents of Lawton listened to the inauguration sermon.

As the financial and governmental center for Comanche County and the southwestern region of Oklahoma Territory, Lawton enjoyed prosperity after the land lottery. A curious mixture of Indians, cowboys, farmers, businessmen, and outlaws filled the twentieth-century frontier settlement, fomenting an atmosphere of rowdiness, lawlessness, and instability. As the town matured, however, a more settled element of the citizenry assumed leadership of the community. One of the most active institutions working for social and moral development of Lawton was the First Presbyterian Church. Befitting its role as a stabilizing institution, the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church wanted an impressive and stable house of worship, a building suitable for Lawton's oldest church.

That desire gave way to action following the evening services of October 31, 1901, when the congregation voted to finance a permanent church building. Members pledged $1,500, the amount to be matched by $1,500 from the regional Board of Church Erection. Construction began immediately and was completed in October of 1902. On October 12th Reverend Irwin dedicated the church.

For more than forty years the First Presbyterian Church remained in the unaltered brick structure. By 1943, however, membership had outgrown the building. The solution was the addition of an educational and recreational annex. Completed in 1946, the addition conformed to the architectural styling of the original section, the only differences being the windows and the roof. The Presbyterian Church operated from this location until 1956, when the building was sold to the Centenary Methodist Church of Lawton. Today, the building is unused.

In addition to being the oldest brick building and the oldest church in Lawton, the Centenary Methodist Church Little Chapel is architecturally significant to the community. Typical of modified American-Gothic church design, the Chapel is a good example of small-town attempts at ornate and elaborate church construction. From the brick buttresses to the arched stained glass windows, the building provides the community with a richly designed structure refreshingly different from the usual post-World War II rectangular brick churches found in small towns. Moreover, located in the downtown business district, which is rapidly becoming commercially dominated, the church preserves some of the historic character of Lawton's frontier heritage.