London Post Office

Len L. Lewis, a horse trader and former officer in the Union Army, moved to the area in 1878, married a local widow and bought a half-section of land, hoping to build a regional trade center. In 1881 Ed, Tom and Robert Stevenson opened a store on the site; Robert was the future father of Coke R. Stevenson. The town took the name London in 1882, when its post office was established, and a Methodist society organized about then. The 1948 county highway map showed thirteen businesses, two churches and a school there.

What the plaque says

London Post Office In the early days of Kimble County, Len and Bettie Lewis established their ranch as a trade center. Bettie received most area mail at their home, the Lewis Hotel and Wagon Yard. In 1882 Bettie filed an application to formalize her postal station and was made the first post-master of the New "London" Post Office. Because of its central location and good roads, London became the direct route between Mason and Junction City. This site replaced an earlier post office near the town square. By 1997, 14 postmasters had served London in 115 years. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve — 16 mi
  A limestone cave on the James River where about four million Mexican free-tailed bats raise their young each summer, kept open to visitors by a family's gift.
• Kimble County Historical Museum — 17 mi
  A free county museum in Junction, the town at the meeting of the North and South Llano, with the papers, photographs and tools of a ranching county.
• Fort Mason — 21 mi
  A reconstructed officers' quarters on Post Oak Hill above Mason, standing where the army's stone fort was taken apart by the town that grew up below it.
• Presidio de San Saba — 22 mi
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.

More markers nearby

• London Town Square — 0.2 mi
• Old Beef Trail Crossing — 6.2 mi
• John L. Jones Ranch — 7.2 mi
• Site of Ivy Chapel and School — 9.0 mi