First Baptist Church of Liberty Hill

The Handbook of Texas says Liberty Hill moved eastward twice before 1882, following its post office and a stage stop, and that when the Austin and Northwestern Railroad bypassed it that year the settlement shifted again. The plaque puts it differently: the town moved when the railroad was built. The Handbook adds that the chartering of Liberty Normal and Business College in 1884 soon brought a student population. The town stayed small, never reporting more than 500 people through 1990, though school enrollment topped 850 in the mid-1980s.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Liberty Hill Successor to Zion Baptist Church and the Liberty Hill Missionary Baptist Church of Christ, which merged 1854, and met in a brush arbor or in Silent Grove School, 4 miles to the west. When Austin & Northwestern Railroad was built, Liberty Hill moved here, and this church was organized (1882), with the Rev. J.A. Arbuckle as pastor. Members erected their building on this site given by the Rev. W.O. Spencer. Evangelism, Sunday school, and other endeavors have prospered. The present church building, in use since 1904, was renovated in 1950. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge: Doeskin Ranch — 8.8 mi
  A free federal refuge north of Lake Travis kept for two songbirds that need old juniper and oak, with trails at the Doeskin Ranch unit near Bertram.
• Inner Space Cavern — 16 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.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 16 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.
• The Round Rock — 19 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.

More markers nearby

• Liberty Hill Cemetery — 0.4 mi
• Williams-Buck Cemetery — 4.2 mi
• Hopewell Cemetery — 4.8 mi
• Manuel Flores — 5.2 mi