Central Presbyterian Church

This church has become a music room as well as a congregation. The sanctuary finished in 1874 on the corner of Brazos and Eighth, which Southern Presbyterians took up after the Civil War split, was replaced by the present building in 1957, and since 1980 the church has offered free weekly concerts. Since 2006 it has also been a South by Southwest venue. The congregation took the name Central Presbyterian in 1983, after the northern and southern branches of the denomination reunited.

What the plaque says

Central Presbyterian Church This congregation traces its roots to October 13, 1839, when Austin's first Presbyterian worship service was held at Bullock's Hotel. Present that day was builder Abner Cook, elder in the first Presbyterian church organized in Austin. He helped acquire this property for the Presbyterian Church (South) following a post-Civil War split in the church. A sanctuary was completed on the site in 1874. This congregation was known in later years as Southern Presbyterian Church, the Free Presbyterian Church, First Southern Presbyterian Church, and Central Presbyterian Church. It has counted among its members many individuals important in the life of the denomination and the city of Austin, including Gov. Francis R. Lubbock; William Sidney Porter (O. Henry); A.N. and Jane Y. McCallum; Dr. George Clark and Rebecca Kilgore Stuart Red; and U.S. Attorney General Thomas Watt Gregory. The Rev. Richmond Kelley Smoot played an important role in the national denomination and in the development of the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. This congregation was instrumental in organizing five Presbyterian churches in Austin. It continues a program of ministry, outreach and cultural events. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Capitol — 0.4 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.5 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.7 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• Texas State Cemetery — 0.9 mi
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.

More markers nearby

• M. M. Long's Livery Stable & Opera House — steps away
• Swedish Consulate and Swante Palm Library — steps away
• Site of Tenth Street Methodist Church — steps away
• Austin High School-- John T. Allan Campus — steps away