Davilla Baptist Church

Davilla is named for Miguel Davila, who received the land grant in 1833. A surveyor named Chamberlin bought the site from the Davila estate and sold town lots with a condition written in: alcohol was never to be sold in the settlement. A post office opened in 1871, the year the Baptists built their sanctuary. The Santa Fe railroad passed several miles away in 1881 and drew off part of the population, yet the Handbook of Texas counts 350 people, three churches and three gristmill-gins in the mid-1880s. The district school became part of Bartlett's in June 1964.

What the plaque says

Davilla Baptist Church A Presbytery consisting of W. Beasley, L. Williams, P. T. Corneal, and E. Allison met at Mumford Springs, Milam County, Texas (present day Davilla) to organize Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church in 1866. From 1868 to 1870 the congregation held services in the Davilla Methodist Church building. In 1870 the congregation purchased a town lot here in Davilla where they constructed a sanctuary in 1871. The congregation was subsequently renamed the Baptist Church of Christ at Davilla, Texas. Early baptisms took place in several nearby creeks. People from the area west of Davilla and others converted by evangelist Elder Penn joined the congregation in the late 1870s. Church records indicate that the congregation has been referred to as Davilla Baptist Church since 1904. For many years a tabernacle adjacent to the church building was used by various local denominations for summer revivals. A baptistry was installed in the sanctuary in 1955. On February 16, 1992, the congregation held their last Sunday School and church services in the original 1871 church building and later that year a new sanctuary was completed at this site. The church continues to provide religious instruction and serve the community with various programs and activities. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 18 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.
• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 22 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 26 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 27 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.

More markers nearby

• Donahoe Community — 4.1 mi
• Lilac — 4.8 mi
• Friendship Community — 5.3 mi
• Urban Cemetery — 7.0 mi