Westminster College

After the Methodists took their college to Tehuacana, where it kept the Westminster name, the Baptist church bought this building in 1902. The Baptist association would not accept the old frame school, so a new one was planned for an academy. A 1907 cornerstone began a concrete building that a later newspaper said cost $75,000 plus donated rock, sand and labor, with twenty-five rooms on the top floor as a girls' dormitory. Charles Thompson was its first president. The academy closed between 1915 and 1918, depending on the account, and the building became a church.

What the plaque says

Westminster College In 1887, Rev. J.M. Harder founded Seven Points College, now called Westminster College, as an institute of higher learning for Collin County. Between 1892 and 1918, the college was known by various names and owned, at different times, by I.P. Rosser, the Methodist Protestant Church, and the Westminster Baptist Church. Primarily, it served as a preparatory school and college, offering degrees and a theological seminary for students. In 1907, C.W. Bulger and Sons of Dallas were hired to construct a 3-story, concrete, 40-room building to replace the previous wood-clad school building. Financial problems forced the school to close in 1918 and the building was demolished in 1972. (2012)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary — 17 mi
  A 289-acre sanctuary in McKinney that Bessie Heard founded at the age of 80, with five habitats, a 50-acre wetland and 6.5 miles of trails.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 20 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.
• Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum — 27 mi
  A Greenville museum of Hunt County's military heroes, including Audie Murphy, and of cotton, which keeps the engine of what it says was the world's largest inland cotton compress.

More markers nearby

• Elm Grove Cemetery — 1.3 mi
• James P. Dumas — 4.8 mi
• First Christian Church of Anna — 5.1 mi
• Public Education in Anna — 5.1 mi