Lytle Methodist Church

The church grew up beside a railroad stop. Lytle began as Lytle Station on the International-Great Northern in 1882, named for rancher and trail driver John T. Lytle, and its 1883 post office went to W. J. Garnand, a casket maker. By 1884 it had a union church, a school, a hotel and a doctor, and by 1892 four general stores, a gin and a Methodist church. Coal mining mattered in the late 1890s. A bank opened in 1910, and about 600 people lived in town by 1914.

What the plaque says

Lytle Methodist Church According to oral history, the Lytle Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was founded in 1889. W.C. Newton, a local farmer and preacher, became known as "The Father of the Lytle Methodist Church" due to his efforts to establish a permanent place of worship. Newton also provided land for the Lytle Community Cemetery, cared for by church trustees. The Rev. Jerome P. Garrett served as the first appointed pastor from 1891-1893. The congregation built their first sanctuary in 1892. After the railroad came through Lytle, bypassing the Benton City community, the Benton City Methodist congregation merged with this one in 1909. An active Women's Missionary Society was founded in 1915; a youth group and the Methodist Men's Club were also established. To meet the needs of a growing congregation, the sanctuary was expanded and renovated in 1922. In 1950 a multi-purpose education building was added, and in 1957 a building committee planned a brick sanctuary with cathedral ceiling and stained glass windows. The Lytle United Methodist Church, as it has been known since 1968, continues to provide diverse ministries to the community through worship services, study programs and other charitable activities. (1992)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 9.7 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 21 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Concepción — 21 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 22 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.

More markers nearby

• Atascosa Lodge No. 379, A.F. and A.M. — 0.4 mi
• Robert Lee Bobbitt — 2.8 mi
• City Hotel — 5.6 mi
• Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church — 5.9 mi