White's Chapel United Methodist Church

The church gave a neighborhood its name. A chamber directory's local history says that before Southlake incorporated in 1956 the area west of Grapevine was defined by four small communities: Dove, Jellico, Union Church and Whites Chapel. The chapel also worked as a civic building. The Southlake Historical Society records that White's Chapel was one of the one-room schools combined into a single district in 1917, and that in June 1919 voters met in the church to approve $7,500 in bonds for a central school, 29 to 25.

What the plaque says

White's Chapel United Methodist Church Founded by settlers who came by wagon train from Dade County, Ga., 1871. Early services were in home of S. B. Austin, the leader. Austin gave land for a cemetery and church. A log meetinghouse was built and in use in Feb. 1872. This was the first Methodist church in this vicinity. Circuit rider preachers drew crowds here from as far away as 20 miles. At first called "Oak Hill," for home church in Georgia, this was soon renamed for a permanent pastor, the Rev. Mr. White. The community school was held in successive church buildings until 1916. Many settlers rest in nearby cemetery. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fort Worth Stockyards — 15 mi
  The brick-street cattle market where Armour and Swift built packing plants in 1902, now a National Register district with a Coliseum, a museum and a longhorn drive twice a day.
• Tarrant County Courthouse — 16 mi
  A pink-granite courthouse of 1895 on the bluff where the Army set up Fort Worth in 1849, in a county named for the man who led the 1841 attack on the Native villages of Village Creek.
• Kimbell Art Museum — 18 mi
  Louis Kahn's cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972, built from Kay Kimbell's bequest and joined in 2013 by Renzo Piano's pavilion for the exhibitions the Kahn galleries could not hold.
• National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame — 19 mi
  A hall of fame begun in Hereford in 1975 to honor rodeo women, widened in 1977 to Western heritage, and housed in Fort Worth's Cultural District since 2002.

More markers nearby

• Jellico — 2.1 mi
• Thomas Easter Cemetery — 2.5 mi
• Bransford — 3.0 mi
• Dr. Lilburn Howard Colley — 3.7 mi