First Presbyterian Church of Mabank

The plaque credits a nearby lake with reviving this congregation. The Handbook of Texas dates Cedar Creek Reservoir's construction from April 1961 to 1965 on Cedar Creek, in Henderson County near Trinidad, and says a Tarrant County water district owns it for municipal supply, so Mabank's lake was built for a distant city's taps. The Mabank entry adds that it drew retirees, Dallas commuters and tourists, and that Mabank grew dramatically after 1966. The church called its first full-time pastor in 1977.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church of Mabank Organized on September 11, 1896, this church began as a small Cumberland Presbyterian congregation in the town of Lawndale (about 2 mi. E of the original Mabank townsite; now within its city limits). Worship services were held in the Lawndale Schoolhouse. In 1900, when the Texas and New Orleans Railroad was built through this area, the town of Mabank was created on the rail line. The citizens of Lawndale relocated to the new townsite. Baptists constructed the first church building in Mabank, which the Presbyterian congregation also used until 1903, when a frame sanctuary was completed under the leadership of the Rev. Newton P. Patterson. The name was changed to First Presbyterian Church, USA, of Mabank in 1904. During the depression of the 1930s the church experienced a period of inactivity. By the 1940s, however, the congregation was reorganized. The construction of a nearby lake in the 1960s brought economic revitalization and increased population to the area. The membership of First Presbyterian Church grew as a result, and the congregation called its first full-time pastor in 1977. It continues to serve the community with a variety of programs. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• No. 1 British Flying Training School Museum — 26 mi
  A free museum at Terrell's airport where about 2,200 RAF cadets learned to fly between 1941 and 1945, with logbooks, uniforms, letters and original training aircraft.
• Petroleum Industry Park — 29 mi
  The pipes and drilling tower mark where a city water well struck oil on June 9, 1894, the start of the first Texas field to produce oil and gas in important quantities.

More markers nearby

• Roddy Lodge No. 734, A.F. & A.M. — steps away
• Mabank — 0.7 mi
• Capt. Edward Thomas Broughton and the Johnson Guards — 7.7 mi
• Prairieville — 7.8 mi