College Street Church of Christ

The church's westward spread ran through preachers and colonies. By 1876 itinerant preachers such as W. H. Stewart, Silas Scarborough and Thomas Nance were carrying it onto the West Texas prairies and into the Panhandle, and several churches began as colonies, notably at Abilene, San Angelo, Lockney and Lubbock. Similar ventures in Mexico began with Collin McKinney Wilmeth's 1896 "Exodus to Mexico," and later colonies there ended in 1916 amid Pancho Villa's activities. In May 1898 Jennie Clarke opened Belle Haven at Luling, the first orphans' home supported by the Churches of Christ in the West.

What the plaque says

College Street Church of Christ In 1880, A. J. Bush arrived in this community, which was then called Junction City. Here he led 17 men and women in forming a Church of Christ. Two years later, after initially holding services in the county courthouse, members of the growing church built their first sanctuary. In 1883, John S. Durst began his 42-year tenure as the church's minister. On this site in 1890, members constructed a new building, which was replaced by the current building in 1929. For more than a century, the Church of Christ has participated in numerous service projects and remains an integral part of Junction's religious community. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kimble County Historical Museum — 0.9 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 27 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Fort McKavett State Historic Site — 31 mi
  The post Sherman called the prettiest in Texas, home to soldiers of all four Buffalo Soldier regiments and then to a town that lived in its buildings until 1973.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Junction — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Junction — steps away
• Site of First Livery Stable — steps away
• O.C. Fisher — 0.2 mi