OUR CHURCH

Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, first known as "Uncle Toby's Church Under the Hill", was located on Vine and Shea Street on the edge of Buffalo Bayou. Uncle Toby, a black minister was given permission in 1865 by his slave master, Darius Gregg, to build a church and a house on one acre of his property, on the northeast corner, for the purpose of worshipping only. Uncle Toby and a few of his followers gathered brush and built the first church which was called the "Brush Arbor Church Under the Hill" where all races and creeds worshipped together. Darius Gregg sold the same land to Uncle Toby for the sum of $5 in 1867. This acre was known as the "Toby Acre" on the Scott and Kose's map of the City of Houston.