First Christian Church

Three church members helped found Arlington College in 1895, the school that became the University of Texas at Arlington. The Handbook of Texas says citizens started it because the growing town lacked adequate public schooling. It charged tuition, taught primary and secondary grades and closed in spring 1902. That fall James McCoy Carlisle reopened it as the Carlisle School for Boys, soon Carlisle Military Academy, which ran until 1913. In 1917 the site became Grubbs Vocational College, a Texas A&M branch, then Arlington State College in 1949 and the University of Texas at Arlington in 1967.

What the plaque says

First Christian Church This congregation traces its origin to a small group of Christians gathered together by the Rev. William H. Wright in the young town of Arlington in 1882. In its first century it has involved into one of Arlington's leading religious institutions whose Bible lectures, educational services, and social and musical ministries reach into the local community and beyond. The Rev. Mr. Wright formally organized First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1890. The congregation erected its first sanctuary in 1895-96 on two lots at the corner of Mesquite and South Streets purchased by church trustees in 1892. Three church members who helped found Arlington College (The University of Texas at Arlington) in 1895 began a close association with the University which continues today. First Christian built a new church building at the corner of Abram and Mesquite in 1919 and called their first full-time pastor in 1948. The congregation moved to a new brick sanctuary here in 1957. First Christian helped establish Rush Creek Christian Church in 1977 and Saint Andrew Christian Church in 1988. The congregation continues to serve the community with a variety of social programs, including Mother's Day Out, pastoral counseling, and televised ministries. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 10 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 14 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 15 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 16 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Arlington — 0.8 mi
• P.A. Watson Log House — 1.1 mi
• North Side School — 1.1 mi
• Jopling-Melear Log Cabin — 1.1 mi