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Raynal Building Denison Raynal Tabernacle
Heading east on Sears Street takes us to some famous historic northeast Denison churches such as: Mt. Obed Baptist, East Baptist, Raynal Tabernacle and East Side Assembly of God. Raynal Tabernacle worships in one of the northeast Denison's most famous structures, which is the old Raynal school building. Charles Anderson, former pastor of a church in Bethel, Oklahoma, established the Raynal Church in 1983. The congregation worshipped in a little building across from Denison High School at 1910 S. Mirick Avenue. The small building had recently housed the Bill George Sudszee Laundry, but it had originally be built and opened in 1955 as the Stinger Cafe, which was short-lived buisness because of forbidding the students to fequent the little joint. In 1985 Anderson struck a deal with the school system and traded his little building for the abandoned Raynal School at 530 E. Morton Street, which had been closed in 1979 under some hotly contested controversy. The Raynal structure was built in 1936; it had replaced the old original Raynall building, builn on the location in 1891 with funds provided by the late Justin Raynal. The church congregation felt the Raynal name should remain on the building. It seems so unique and possibly a first by which a saloon operator who died over a hundred years before, would have his name so honored by a church congregation. This has to be his finest tribute. Charles Anderson, a Denison native, returned to Denison in the early 1980s from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had transferred at the closing of Perrin Air Force Base in 1971. Anderson, James Bishop, and myself had once worked with Ty Fitzgerald at the old J.C. Coffee Grocery Store at 806 West Coffin, before it was sold to Dave WIlburn and Tellus Miller in the late 1950s. Anderson had gotten his start in the meat business with his father, Lee, at their own grocery store in an old Afred Sinor store at 530 West Coffin in the 1940s. We can be sure of one thing, with the church occupying the building assures the structure will continue to survive for years to come.  Churches Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |