First Presbyterian Church of El Paso

The soldiers this congregation served in World War II belonged to a fort that the war transformed. Fort Bliss became an antiaircraft training center in September 1940, and during the 1940s it grew from a few thousand acres to more than a million, roughly seventy-five miles long and fifty-four wide, most of it in New Mexico. By June 1943 the horses were gone and the cavalry mechanized, and when the First Cavalry Division left that year the fort became chiefly an artillery post. German rocket experts, Wernher von Braun among them, worked there just after the war.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church of El Paso In the early 1880s, Presbyterians worshiped with other El Paso denominations in a union tent at the town's center. Their own congregation was organized on April 16, 1882, under the guidance of the Rev. John Alexander Merrill, who had traveled here from San Francisco about two years before. Sixteen charter members built a sanctuary at Myrtle Avenue and North Kansas Street, dedicated on March 7, 1883. The membership outgrew that building during the pastorate of Dr. Henry W. Moore (d. 1905) after 1896. A new structure at Yandell Blvd. and Stanton Street was dedicated on January 14, 1908, by Dr. W. Edward McLeod (d. 1908). By the early 1940s, membership reached 1400, and the congregation provided numerous religious and recreational services to soldiers based in El Paso during World War II. The church continued community work in post-war years with youth programs and missionary activities along the El Paso border. Under the pastorate of George W. Burroughs (1919-1966) a new church complex was begun at this site, where services were first held in 1958. As the first Presbyterian fellowship in Texas west of the Pecos, this church has strong ties to west Texas history and the development of modern El Paso. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Magoffin Home State Historic Site — 1.2 mi
  A U-shaped adobe of the 1870s in central El Paso that joins Mexican building to an Anglo plan, closed for restoration through 2027 while its visitor center stays open.
• Chamizal National Memorial — 1.9 mi
  A park on land the Rio Grande once put in dispute, where a century-old border quarrel between the United States and Mexico was settled by treaty and a new concrete channel.
• Ysleta Mission (Corpus Christi de la Ysleta del Sur) — 11 mi
  The Tigua mission church at Ysleta, rebuilt in 1908 around the walls, bell and Santo Entierro that came through fire, its interior painted with rain clouds and corn.
• Franklin Mountains State Park — 11 mi
  Almost 27,000 acres of desert mountains inside El Paso, with the oldest rocks in Texas, more than 100 miles of trail and campsites in the Tom Mays Unit.

More markers nearby

• The Rainmakers of 1891 — 0.4 mi
• Scenic Drive — 0.4 mi
• William Ward Turney and Iva Guthrie Turney — 0.6 mi
• First Christian Church of El Paso — 0.6 mi