Midlothian Presbyterian Church

What the plaque calls a beacon had a very practical neighbor: cotton. The Handbook of Texas says the Midlothian Oil Mill and Gin was founded in 1898 as a three-press mill and at its peak ran fourteen gins. Before 1929 many Midlothian businesses did well, some with foreign markets. Later the town called itself the Cement Capitol of Texas, with makers of Portland cement and steel, and by the 1980s was a distribution point for foreign imports. Growth from Dallas and Fort Worth beginning in the mid-1970s spread homes across old farmland while the school district swelled.

What the plaque says

Midlothian Presbyterian Church In 1911, two congregations merged to form Midlothian Presbyterian Church. One originally organized in 1883 under Pastor D. G. Malloy and was part of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA). The other organized in 1890 under the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS). Members of the newly merged church built a sanctuary from 1913-14. The congregation has a history of supporting the community, including helping with Manna House, a cooperative venture among Midlothian churches aiding needy families. Members have also focused on missions on a national and global scale. Today, the church continues to be a beacon of light for the residents of Midlothian. (2010)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Cedar Ridge Preserve — 11 mi
  A 633-acre Audubon Dallas preserve at the western edge of Dallas County, with about nine miles of trails through prairie, woodland and escarpment hills.
• Ellis County Courthouse — 11 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's courthouse of 1897 in Pecos red sandstone and pink granite, with twenty-one carved stone faces and two cornerstones left by a quarrel over its building.
• The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza — 23 mi
  A plow-company warehouse of 1903, identified by the Warren Commission as the building Oswald fired from, now a museum on its sixth and seventh floors above Dealey Plaza.
• Dallas Heritage Village at Old City Park — 24 mi
  Dallas's first city park, laid out around Browder's Spring in 1876, now a museum of historic buildings moved here from across North Texas, among them Millermore, a cotton planter's mansion.

More markers nearby

• Site of Polytechnic Institute — steps away
• First United Methodist Church of Midlothian — 0.6 mi
• Site of Old Hawkins Springs — 1.1 mi
• Sardis Cemetery — 6.0 mi