First Presbyterian Church of Cisco

In its first decade Cisco filled out quickly. A Mrs. Haws built and ran the first hotel, and Mrs. J. D. Alexander brought the first millinery and fancy goods to town. By 1892 Cisco had two newspapers and a bank, and its economy rested on trade, ranching, fruit farming and nearby limestone, coal and iron ore. A broom factory and roller corn and flour mills were among its fifty-six businesses. The tornado of 1893 that destroyed this church's first sanctuary killed twenty-eight people, the Handbook of Texas says, and damaged or destroyed most of the town's homes and businesses.

What the plaque says

When the town of Cisco was platted in May 1881, land at the corner of Eighth Street and Avenue G was set aside for use by a Presbyterian congregation. In August of that same year, local residents Lillie Hightower, Mrs. F.F. Lattimer, Mrs. J.A. Lee, and M.H. Lee organized this fellowship. An 1893 tornado destroyed the earliest sanctuary and a second building served until facilities at this site were completed in 1924. Active in local social services and international benevolences, the First Presbyterian Church of Cisco has played a significant role in the growth of the city. (1981)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Conrad Hilton Center and Mobley Hotel — 0.3 mi
  The 40-room oil-boom hotel in Cisco that Conrad Hilton bought in 1919 when a bank deal fell through, now a museum of the Hilton start and of Cisco's 1927 Santa Claus bank robbery.
• Old Rip at the Eastland County Courthouse — 9.7 mi
  A horned lizard in a glass-topped casket in the 1928 Eastland courthouse, the creature said to have come out alive from the old building's cornerstone after thirty-one years.
• Old Jail Art Center — 29 mi
  An art museum in Albany's 1878 stone jail, where the masons carved their initials to be sure of pay, now holding Chinese tomb figures and works by Picasso and Klee.

More markers nearby

• First United Methodist Church of Cisco — steps away
• First Baptist Church of Cisco — 0.3 mi
• Cisco College — 0.8 mi
• Mangum Baptist Church — 8.8 mi