Eighth Street Baptist Church

Eighth Street Baptist Church tells its own story on its website. By that account the Rev. L. J. Mackey organized Saint Love All Baptist in 1882 with 44 members, and the congregation moved from Avenue E in 1905. The Rev. D. T. Trammell came from Ennis in 1941 and cleared a heavy debt. Ministries begun after the Rev. Alfred Stapleton arrived in 1983 include a Race Relation Day held every February. Later the church joined other congregations in interdenominational and interracial worship, with a yearly revival, and it joined the Willow Grove District Association.

What the plaque says

Eighth Street Baptist Church Soon after the establishment of Temple as a railroad town in 1882, the Rev. L.J. Mackey organized the Saint Love All Baptist Church. The early mission of the church was to serve African American railroad workers in the new town. It was located on the southeast corner of D and 12th streets until 1905, when, as the First Baptist Church (Colored), members moved to this location on what was then Eighth Street. In 1911, during the pastorate of the Rev. J.S. Simmons, members adopted the present congregational name. The church has played a vital role in the development of the community it serves through active ministries that include youth, senior and homebound programs. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 0.5 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.
• Mother Neff State Park — 18 mi
  A Leon River park that grew from six acres Isabella Neff left the state in her 1921 will, where Civilian Conservation Corps Company 817 built a stone tower, a pavilion and roads in the 1930s.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 27 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.

More markers nearby

• Corinth Missionary Baptist Church — steps away
• Knob Creek Lodge No. 401, A.F. & A.M. — 0.3 mi
• City of Temple — 0.4 mi
• Site of the Organization of the Texas Forestry Association — 0.4 mi