First Presbyterian Church of Navasota

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, Navasota sits in Grimes County with more than a few old stories buried in its soil, and this one goes back a good while. The First Presbyterian Church of Navasota was organized in 1866, drawing its founding members from an older congregation over at Washington, Texas.

Think about that for a moment. These weren't folks starting from scratch, building something out of nothing. They were carrying something with them, something already established, already rooted, transplanting it to new ground.

That takes a certain kind of commitment. Ten years passed after that organizing, ten years of a congregation finding its footing, and then in 1876 they put up their first proper building. Now that building served its purpose, did what a building is supposed to do, but the story doesn't end there.

Because in 1894, that first structure was replaced. And what replaced it is something worth slowing down for. A Victorian edifice, the marker calls it, finely crafted in the taste of its English builders.

Say that phrase again slowly. Finely crafted in the taste of its English builders. Somebody brought a sensibility to Grimes County, Texas, an eye shaped somewhere across an ocean, and set it down right here in Navasota.

That building has been standing ever since, a testament to 1866, to 1876, to 1894, and to every hand that shaped it along the way.

What the marker says

Organized in 1866, drawing members from old church at Washington, Texas. First building, erected in 1876, was replaced in 1894 by this Victorian edifice finely crafted in the taste of its English builders. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970