First Presbyterian Church

The plaque credits the Rev. J. H. Hutchinson with organizing the church. The congregation's own history calls him a railroad evangelist for the new rail towns, working under Brazos Presbytery. He turned down a Northern Presbyterian offer tied to Union loyalty and relied on local laymen for $50 a month. For more than three years the congregation met in a warehouse owned by Guy M. Bryan near the railroad. When it built in 1871, a Black carpenter named Henry Johnson sawed the window and door frames.

What the plaque says

First Presbyterian Church Organized Nov. 21, 1867, in the Presbytery of Brazos by The Rev. J.H. Hutchinson, this apparently was the second denominational group in Bryan. In 1871, members themselves built their first sanctuary at Washington and 29th Streets. This effort was praised by Synod as "the way to build a church". A new brick structure was erected at the old site in 1906. At present site, first services were held in educational wing, June 1958. Present sanctuary was completed in 1966. In its first century, congregation was served by seventeen ministers. (1970)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 4.6 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 24 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Navasota — 25 mi
  A railroad and cotton town where the La Bahia Road crossed the Navasota River, scarred by an 1865 explosion and yellow fever, and the home ground of the songster Mance Lipscomb.
• Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site — 26 mi
  A cedar-log dogtrot cabin of 1834 on the road through Anderson that grew into a seventeen-room inn and post office for travelers of the Republic, kept by one family until 1976.

More markers nearby

• The Woman's Club — steps away
• Site of First Public School in Bryan — 0.6 mi
• First Methodist Church of Bryan — 0.8 mi
• St. Joseph Catholic Church — 0.9 mi