Woman's Study Club of Holland

James R. Holland settled on Darrs Creek about 1874 and built the area's first steam cotton gin in 1878. A post office opened in 1879 and the Katy railroad soon followed. The Handbook of Texas counts 300 people in 1884, with five general stores, four saloons and three hotels, and 600 by 1890, with four churches and a newspaper, the Guard. Czech immigrants arrived in the early 1900s and organized a Brethren church in 1910. The Handbook calls the Women's Study Club one of the oldest women's civic groups in Texas.

What the plaque says

Woman's Study Club of Holland On January 14, 1914, a small group of local women met to organize a study club for the cultural advancement of its members. In addition ot its primary focus, the club soon adopted a series of civic projects, including many that offered financial support for public school programs, that had a dramatic impact on the development of the community. Among the projects was a 1939 campaign that resulted in the preservation of Holland's Opera House for use as a civic center. Through its activities, the club continues to reflect the goals and ideals of its founders. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 15 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 23 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 25 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 26 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Miriam A. Ferguson Birthplace — 4.9 mi
• Site of Booker T. Washington School — 5.6 mi
• Bartlett Grammar School — 5.8 mi
• First Baptist Church of Bartlett — 5.8 mi