First Presbyterian Church Building

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Way back in 1871, a man named Reverend J. A.

Smiley stood up in Ellis County and organized the First Presbyterian Church. Sixteen charter members. That's it.

Sixteen souls to start the whole thing. Now, you might think sixteen people in a church sounds modest, but those sixteen had plans. They had patience, too, because they waited five years before they put up their first building. 1876.

That first structure served its congregation, did its duty, and then in 1916 and 1917, it was replaced by the building that still stands today. The one the marker is talkin' about. And here is where the story gets interesting, because that building is something to look at.

Classical church design, beaux arts details, modified Doric columns, art glass windows. Somebody cared deeply about what this place looked like, and it shows. The congregation worshipped inside those walls for decades, right up until 1979, when this church merged with another congregation.

After that merger, the building was sold. Sold to the Ellis County Art Association, who turned it into a fine arts museum. So those modified Doric columns and those art glass windows, they are still doing what good architecture always does.

They are drawing people in, just for a different kind of devotion now. Reverend Smiley started with sixteen members and a vision in 1871. What he set in motion is still standing, still being appreciated, more than a hundred years later.

That is a legacy worth pulling over for.

What the marker says

The Rev. J. A. Smiley organized the First Presbyterian Church in 1871 with 16 charter members. The first church building was erected in 1876 and replaced by this structure in 1916-17. After this congregation merged with another church in 1979, the building was sold to the Ellis County Art Association for use as a fine arts museum. It is a fine example of a classical church with beaux arts details in its modified Doric columns and art glass windows. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1997