First Presbyterian Church

The Rev. Levi Tenney's History of the Presbytery of Central Texas, printed in 1895, tells what came before the church. Tenney first preached in Belton in April 1854, in a school house boarded with rough split boards. From 1855 to 1857 he held monthly services in a house the Cumberland Presbyterians built mostly at one man's expense, but too few Presbyterians lived there to organize. Later the group met in the Methodist church and a union church. By the spring of 1875 it had twenty members.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church On October 21, 1860, the Rev. Levi Tenney established a Presbyterian congregation in Belton with eight founding members. After meeting in several locations during its early years, property was purchased west of the intersection of Second Ave. and North Pearl St. for the construction of a church building in 1879. The church relocated in 1905-1906 to a site on North Main, and in 1964 to the intersection of Church and Greenbriar. In addition to supporting Presbyterian missions and programs, members have contributed to community projects such as the Helping Hands Ministry and Meals on Wheels. First Presbyterian today continues to serve as a spiritual leader in the Belton community. (2011)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 6.9 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.

More markers nearby

• Jeff Hamilton — 0.9 mi
• A Memorial to Civil War Education in Texas — 0.9 mi
• The Curtis Mansion — 0.9 mi
• Scott and White School of Nursing — 0.9 mi