McALLEN — On the corner of South 16th Street and Booker T. Avenue, a piece of history important to the Black community was rededicated this week in celebration of upgrades made to preserve it.

Bethel Garden was honored Friday during a rededication ceremony held by the city of McAllen in partnership with Village in the Valley, a nonprofit group focused on connecting the Black community.

A Texas Historic Landmark, Bethel Garden is the former site of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. Originally located on the corner of Fresno and 18th Street and named Little Bethel Baptist Church, it was founded in 1936 by Eugene and Georgia Hubbard when they couldn’t find any churches for African-Americans in the city at the time.

On Friday, as Black History Month came to a close, the city of McAllen and Village in the Valley (ViVa) celebrated the labor invested into the preservation of the garden and what it represented for the Black community and the history of the Rio Grande Valley.

Rey Howard speaks during a Bethel Garden rededication ceremony Friday at McAllen City Hall. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

“This has been a remarkable team effort,” said Ray Howard, chair of Black Heritage and Celebrations Committee for ViVa. “I’d say about two years ago, I personally — as well as others — was invited to go visit Bethel Garden. It needed some attention so we organized ourselves to go in and do a little cleanup day and made a community project.”

About a year or two ago, Howard said they had the idea to beautify the area and then work began late last summer.

“Of course COVID slowed things down a little bit but the city has been diligent and once things kind of eased up a little bit, then the workers were able to get out there,” Howard said.

At the site now sits a metal frame that is symbolic of the church that once rested there. Howard said there is also new vegetation, most of which is native to the state.

“We’re not done yet, there’s going to be some … plaques which will have narratives on those plaques so when you come to visit the site, you’ll be able to read about some of the history of the community,” he said. “We hope to put a fountain in there at some point so there are other ideas that are in motion.”

Local resident Daniel Munoz waves at a caravan to city hall as it passes by as he sits on a bench at Bethel Garden on Friday in McAllen. (Joel Martinez | [email protected])

Theresa Gatling, co-founder of ViVa, agreed that before the project, the site resembled “a dump.”

“And now when you drive by it, we can be proud of what is has become,” Gatling said during the rededication ceremony, thanking Mayor Jim Darling and other city officials for assisting their organization in their goals to elevate the Black community and also connect with other cultures.

The ability to tell the story of Bethel Garden, Howard said, is significant especially for the Black community whose accomplishments have often gone unrecognized or were outright buried throughout history.

But through this project, ViVa and the city are highlighting the history of the African-American people here and how they connected with people of Mexican descent and of other ethnicities in La Paloma neighborhood.

“It is my privilege and the privilege of others to join forces and to make this idea a reality and today we celebrate the sort of rebirth of Bethel Garden,” Howard said of the project, adding that the site was, not just the faith center, but also the educational, social, and economic center for the African American families who lived in that neighborhood.

“The legacy of the neighborhood is restored and Bethel Garden is symbolic of, not just a building but, the lives that lived in that community,” Howard said.


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