During his early years in Texas, Flanders designed only a small number of churches. He has been attributed with the 1877 Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, although that appears unlikely. The first confirmed church design was done in 1882 and the plan was for the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. This was an exuberant Victorian edifice that included the nucleus of what was to become a signature characteristic in many of his later churches - the 'Flandersian' tower. The second church followed four years later and was a traditional design for a small church in Lampasas, Texas. It was an "L" shaped floor plan with an inset tower that housed the entry to the building. Almost a dozen years passed before his next church - The First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Dallas. This building contained many of the elements JEF used in church designs that followed in the next two decades. The building had a hipped roof amd a predominant entry tower flanked on both sides by lesser towers that also contained entries. The following year, 1899, the Central Christian Church of Greenville, Texas made the final transition into the style that can be uniquely identified as Flanders'.
By the turn of the twentieth century, Flanders was no longer the budding young architect that had arrived in Dallas twenty-four years earlier. His fiftieth birthday was in 1899. Many of his twentieth century works were more institutional than commercial - buildings such as schools, lodges, and churches. Just as courthouses had materialized as a market in 1883, churches appeared as a market in the1900's. It was also during this time that JEF made his two sons partners in the business and the name was changed to "Flanders and Flanders". In his 1925 interview, Flanders stated that he had designed 125 churches in Texas and additional ones in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Missouri. The Methodists in particular favored his styling and most of the plans were for that denomination. Most of the exceptions were Christian churches.
To produce such a large number of designs in such a short period of time, thirteen years, many were built from similar floor plans with the main changes being exterior ones. Most of JEF's churches can be categorized into one of five basic floor plans.
According to Jennings and Gottfried, several essays written in the first two decades of the century seemed to agree on only one thing - a rejection of the Akron Plan, arguing for separate areas for worshiping and teaching. However none of the other plans addressed the need for a teaching space, leaving that to be accomodate in a separate building. The Akron Plan met the needs of the people that used it. In the construction of new churches, the resources of congregations differed. Many chose to participate in the details of their building project to offset costs. Some actually performed some of the construction work. Others superintended the construction and entered into contracts with suppliers for lumber, roofing, and other construction materials as well as equipement and labor for lighting, plumbing, and heating. Two main elements of the building were almost always selected by the building committee - the windows and the furnishing - the pews, alter and pulpit.
There were a number of companies such as the E.F.Stafford Manufacturing Company of Chicago who operated an enormous manufacturing facility that produced furnishings for many types of buildings. For Texans there were more local companies such as the C.H.Myers & Co. of Houston. Church windows were produced by companies such as the Dallas Art Glass Company as well as manufacturers in St. Louis and other mid-western cities. Some churches chose to import their windows from Europe.
Railroads opened large markets for products of this type and spurred the growth of large manufacturers such as the Staffod Company. More importantly, they made it possible for almost any small town church to have access to quality furnishings at prices they could afford to pay. As the county seats of emerging counties in the late 1800's boasted of tall courthouse towers, many towns and cities in the early 1900's sent church towers soaring into the air. The church became the dominant structure in many of these small towns as their steeples pierced the horizons. Many of these buildings survive today and it is undoubtedly through his churches that JEF made the greatest impact on the lives of his clients and on the lives of those that followed them.
1901, McKinney, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1901. Clarksville, TX, McKenzie Memorial Methodist Church South
1903, Farmersville, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1903, Bryan, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1904, Dallas, TX, Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church South
1904, Athens, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1904, Royce City, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1905, Chickasa, OK, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1905, Pittsburg, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1905ca, Cleburne, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1905, Sherman, TX, Central Christian Church
1905, Pittsburg, TX, First Baptist Church
1906, San Angelo, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1907, Dallas, TX, Tabernacle Methodist Episcopal Church South
1908ca, Dallas, TX, Ervay Street Methodist Episcopal Church South
1909, Anson, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1909, Sherman, TX, Travis Street Methodist Episcopal Church South
1909, Dallas, TX, Mallalieu Methodist Episcopal Church South
1909, Mangum, OK. First Methodist Episcopal Church South
1910, MArlin, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1910, Rosebud, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1910, Wichita Falls, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1910, Vernon, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1910, Stamford, TX, St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church South
1910, Pilot Point, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1911, Honey Grove, TX, McKenzie Methodist Episcopal Church South
1911, Hubbard, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1912, Abilene, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
1912, Corpus Christi, TX, Methodist Episcopal Church South
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