First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth

The plaque's 'Southern' and 'Northern' labels trace to the Civil War. The Handbook of Texas says Texas Presbyterians joined others in the South in 1861 to organize the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America, and in 1865 most Texas congregations affiliated with the Presbyterian Church U.S., the Southern church. Congregations that wanted to rejoin the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. withdrew in 1867 and formed the Austin Presbytery. Cumberland Presbyterians had a separate history, and most of their Texas congregations merged into the Northern church in 1906.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth The Fort Worth Presbyterian Church was organized in 1873 with ten charter members. Affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, U. S. ("Southern"), the congregation built a frame sanctuary at the corner of 4th and Calhoun Streets. In 1886 the name was changed to First Presbyterian Church of Fort Worth, and a new stone structure was built in 1890. A Fort Worth congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed in 1878. When the Cumberland Presbyterian Church affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. ("Northern") in 1906, the word Cumberland was dropped from the local church's name. Desiring to work together to serve the community with worship and missionary programs, the two Fort Worth congregations united in 1916 to form a federation, the first such union in Texas. The members met together and shared one pastor, but maintained separate national affiliations. The congregation erected a new edifice at this site, opening it on December 23, 1956. The "Southern" and "Northern" denominations united in 1983 to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tarrant County Courthouse — 0.8 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.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 1.3 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.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 1.6 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.
• Fort Worth Stockyards — 2.8 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.

More markers nearby

• Masonic Temple of Fort Worth — 0.3 mi
• Freese and Nichols, Inc. — 0.5 mi
• Amon G. Carter — 0.6 mi
• First Christian Church of Fort Worth — 0.7 mi