Every October, St. Mark's covers its front lawn in pumpkins. Seven years after the fire, the church finally owns all of the building behind them.
By Jim Towers, M.J.A., J.D.
The pumpkins arrive on pallets and leave in the arms of children.
In between, for a few weeks each October, they cover the front lawn of St. Mark's United Methodist Church at 600 Pecore Street. They sit in long rows on straw, run up the front steps, and line both sides of the walk to the education building. Hay bales and scarecrows stand guard by the doors. Under the live oaks, the light comes through in patches, and families wander the rows looking for the right one.
It has looked like this for a long time. I have photographs of this lawn from ten years ago and from twelve years ago, and the scene is nearly the same: the same limestone tower, the same pallets, the same parents steering the same kind of wagon. The children in the old frames are in high school now. Some of them are probably bringing younger siblings.
This year my wife and I went to pick our own. We walked the rows, argued gently about size, and carried two home. That is the whole ritual, and in the Heights it is a real one. You do not go to a big-box store for this pumpkin. You go to St. Mark's.
A church older than the neighborhood
The congregation is older than the neighborhood around it. According to its Texas historical marker, it traces back to 1875, when the Rev. Rudolph Brueck organized Emanuel German Methodist Episcopal Church to serve Houston's German immigrants. It became Zion German Methodist Church in 1891.
In 1938 it merged with the Norhill congregation and moved to this corner. The new church took the name St. Mark's. The marker notes that the merger was the first between Methodist churches from the old Northern and Southern branches, which had split before the Civil War.
That German root is still part of how the church talks about itself. So is the merger. St. Mark's was born out of two groups deciding they would rather be one.
The fire
On the afternoon of Sept. 20, 2019, smoke poured out of the building on Pecore. Houston firefighters fought a two-alarm fire as flames came through the windows. Three people inside got out safely. Arson investigators worked the scene into the evening.
I photographed it. Those frames show what the neighborhood saw that day: a limestone church that had stood since 1940, with fire where the light usually comes through.
The church did not close. Its day school reopened within days. Then came the long part, the part nobody photographs: contractors, insurance, permits, and a loan to cover what the insurance did not.
When I spoke with the pastor this fall, she told me the church made its final payment on that loan last month. Seven years after the fire, the building is theirs again, free and clear.
The pumpkin patch never stopped. Through the rebuilding, it came back every October.
Everyone welcome
Walk to the arcade of the education building and you will see a Progress Pride flag in the window, with a sign beside it saying everyone is welcome. The church means it. It is one of the more openly inclusive congregations in the Heights, and it says so on the front of the building.
The pumpkin patch is the same idea in a different form. Nobody asks where you worship, or whether you do. You walk in off Pecore, find a pumpkin, pay, and go home. On a weekday afternoon in late October, that is what most of the Heights was doing.
The part that lasts
Around back, at the church's Building B, a big blue LOVE mural covers the cinderblock wall. More pumpkins sit on pallets beneath an oak, with a scarecrow on a hay bale keeping watch.
It is a good place to end. The building burned and was rebuilt. The loan is paid. The pumpkins come back every year, and so do the families.
St. Mark's United Methodist Church is at 600 Pecore St. Sunday worship is at 11 a.m. More at smumc.org.
By Jim Towers, photojournalist, Houston Heights Independent.
ATTENTION ASSIGNMENT DESKS & MEDIA PRODUCERS:
All text, video, and original photography covering this story are the exclusive property of the Houston Heights Independent. Broadcast, digital replication, or social scraping of these assets without an active license is strictly prohibited. To license clean, high-density, unwatermarked frames for TV broadcast or regional news print, contact our newsroom immediately, at houstonheightsindependent@gmail.com. or 210-288-3034. Standard licensing fees apply.
© 2026 Houston Heights Independent. All rights reserved. Registered under Jim Towers, AA. BS.MJA.JD. No part of this publication, including text, layout, and original photography, may be reproduced, distributed, broadcast, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the Editor-in-Chief. For media licensing inquiries or syndication requests, contact at houstonheightsindependent@gmail.com. Standard licensing fees apply.
— Houston Heights Independent | houstonheightsindependent.com —
