First Baptist Church of Renner

Renner was a railroad stop with a railroad engineer's name. The Handbook of Texas says it was established in 1888 on the Cotton Belt line and named for John A. Renner, the engineer in charge of developing townsites along it. A post office opened that year for fifty residents, and by 1915 the town had 300. After World War II the Texas Research Foundation chose Renner for its agricultural laboratories. By 1983, the Handbook says, the community had been incorporated into the city of Dallas.

What the plaque says

First Baptist Church of Renner Renner Baptists organized in 1890 and met in the school building for eight years. Charter members were: B.F. and Kate E. Binkley; Elizabeth H., J.J., Mary A., and R.F. Butler; Mary E. and P.W. Collier; Mary L. Dickerson; George B., J.P. and Nancy E. Jennings; Mary A. McLary; Mary E. Meason; Rob C. and Margaret A. Reynolds. In 1897, the congregation bought this lot and erected a church. The present structure was built in 1925. The only surviving church in Renner, this pioneer fellowship remains a focal point in the community. (1976) 1980 supplemental plate: To better serve a changing community, the congregation of the First Baptist Church of Renner purchased this property in December 1979 and moved its place of worship to this location. The church became Preston Highlands Baptist Church in April 1980, with the first building dedicated on October 12, 1980. (1982)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Dallas Museum of Art — 14 mi
  A city art museum that began as the Dallas Art Association in 1903, grew up in Fair Park, and has stood in the Arts District since 1984 under a forty-foot barrel vault.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 14 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Fair Park — 14 mi
  The State Fair of Texas grounds since 1886, where the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition left one of the country's greatest concentrations of Art Deco exposition buildings.
• African American Museum, Dallas — 14 mi
  Founded in 1974 at Bishop College, a free Fair Park museum holding the Sepia photograph archive, African art and A. Maceo Smith's papers, and the story of the Hall of Negro Life.

More markers nearby

• Frankford — 1.7 mi
• White Rock Chapel — 2.9 mi
• Liberty Baptist Church — 3.2 mi
• Richardson — 4.1 mi