Main Street Presbyterian Church

Main Street Presbyterian Church burned early on Sunday, February 10, 2013, and lightning was blamed. On Ash Wednesday the congregation joined McKenzie United Methodist for a service, and ashes from the burned church were mixed with last year's Palm Sunday ashes to mark foreheads. A member said her husband's great-grandfather had helped unload the church's organ at the depot in 1913. Services moved to a member's home while plans for rebuilding on the site took shape. Young people from several churches stacked salvaged brick in case it could be reused.

What the plaque says

Main Street Presbyterian Church Early Honey Grove settlers bought land for a Union Church in 1855, with the sanctuary to be shared by Methodist, Baptist, Christian and Cumberland Presbyterian congregations, each holding services one Sunday per month. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church officially organized in February 1858 with Rev. R. M. Rudolph as minister and S. Sloan and Orville Smith as elders. The Cumberland Church bought its own lot on Main Street in 1881 and met in a school building before their new sanctuary, designed by architect Joseph Scott and built by contractors J.S. and J.B. Boone, was completed in 1884. The congregation also hosted the first meeting in the Honey Grove Tabernacle completed in 1907. At about this time, the name changed from Cumberland Presbyterian to Main Street Presbyterian Church. In 1911-12, a brick veneer was applied to the sanctuary, and a portion of the First Presbyterian building became the fellowship hall. Five historic congregations comprise the current Main Street Presbyterian Church. After uniting with First Presbyterian Church in Honey Grove (organized 1861) in 1911, Main Street Presbyterian Church also incorporated members from Rock Point Presbyterian Church (organized 1891) in 1939, Spring Hill Presbyterian Church (organized 1854) in 1966, and Dial United Presbyterian Church (organized 1846) in 1993. Main Street participates with other churches in the Greater Honey Grove Ministerial Alliance in 5th Sunday singings and community Thanksgiving services, as well as joint vacation bible school programs and contributions to those in need. In February 2013 the historic church building was destroyed by fire. The congregation continues as an important part of the spiritual community of Honey Grove. (2013)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.
• Evergreen Cemetery — 21 mi
  Paris's town cemetery since 1866, with a carved-stone gallery that includes the Babcock monument in cowboy boots, and the grave of the three-year-old whose death led to the 1893 lynching of Henry Smith.
• Sam Bell Maxey House State Historic Site — 21 mi
  The Italian-villa-style house in Paris, finished in 1868 with a lawyer's fees, where a Confederate major general turned U.S. senator and two later generations of his family lived.
• Cooper Lake State Park — 21 mi
  Two units on Jim Chapman Lake, a Corps reservoir proposed in the late 1930s, stalled by a lawsuit until 1984 and dedicated in 1991, with a 10.5-mile equestrian trail and wildlife land around it.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Honey Grove — steps away
• Honey Grove Lodge No. 164, A. F. & A. M. — steps away
• Honey Grove City Hall — steps away
• Dial Home — 0.2 mi