First Baptist Church of Del Rio

The Stuckers' car was one of seven Baptist chapel cars, each half chapel and half living quarters, built by Barney and Smith between 1890 and 1913. The idea came from railroad executive Colgate Hoyt and his brother, a Minneapolis pastor, and Hoyt's backers included John D. Rockefeller; Thomas Edison gave each car a phonograph. The Good Will was dedicated at Saratoga Springs, New York, on June 1, 1895, and sent to Texas to work with the Texas Baptist Convention. It was damaged in the 1900 Galveston hurricane. By 1905 it had moved on to Missouri and Colorado.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Del Rio On May 24, 1896, Pastor Frank Marrs joined the Rev. and Mrs. Edwin S. Stucker as founding members of Del Rio's First Baptist Church. Marrs was from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary of Kentucky, and the Stuckers were both missionaries. The couple served railroad workers and their families from a railway car named "Goodwill," sponsored by the American Baptist Sunday School Society of Philadelphia, Pa. The church formally organized with six charter members. As Del Rio grew, so did the congregation and the need for a larger structure. Through a land donation, members moved church services to an adobe building on the southwest corner of Garfield and Pecan streets. On February 17, 1925, they laid the cornerstone of a brick and stone building at that same location to replace the adobe structure. That sanctuary remained home to the First Baptist congregation for 35 years. In 1960, the growing church built a new structure on Avenue G, outside the downtown area, incorporating the cornerstone of the old building. Over the years, Del Rio's First Baptist Church has constructed additional buildings to use for classrooms. It has also acquired land throughout the region to build other churches, including what would become the congregations of El Buen Pastor and Northside Baptist. Despite a fire that destroyed early church records, First Baptist Church has a strong sense of its history and remains true to the vision of service set forth by the founders. It continues to be an important institution in the Del Rio community more than a century after its modest beginning. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• San Felipe Creek — 0.6 mi
  The spring-fed creek that made Del Rio, rising from the third largest springs in Texas and running past swimming holes and a hike-and-bike trail through town.
• Whitehead Memorial Museum — 1.1 mi
  A village of old Del Rio buildings set along a working irrigation canal, from an 1870 store to a 1925 doctor's office, with Judge Roy Bean buried on the grounds.
• Val Verde Winery — 1.5 mi
  The family winery an Italian immigrant founded on Del Rio's irrigated land in 1883, which outlasted Prohibition by selling table grapes and kept Texas wine alive into the 1970s.
• Amistad National Recreation Area — 8.8 mi
  The American side of the reservoir the United States and Mexico finished in 1969 where three rivers meet, with painted shelters still reachable by boat when the water allows.

More markers nearby

• Paul Kallinger — 0.4 mi
• Operation Brass Knob — 0.4 mi
• The Carter Family in Del Rio — 0.4 mi
• City of Del Rio — 0.5 mi