Arcadia Christian Church
Santa Fe, Galveston County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The town of Arcadia was established on the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe Railroad in 1890. This church was organized in 1894 and represents the oldest surviving church in the community. Initial services were held by the Rev. T. Patterson in a building shared with the local Methodist church. The building was destroyed by a tornado about 1909, prompting Arcadia Christian to build its first sanctuary on a town lot in 1910. Except for a brief period during World War II, the church experienced steady growth, and in 1955 the congregation built a new brick church building. A steam locomotive bell donated by the Santa Fe Railway Company in 1961 was placed in the sanctuary belfry. The congregation continued to grow and in 1983 a new sanctuary was erected at this site. Included in the new facility was an office complex and a library. the former brick sanctuary was later converted for use as classrooms and a small chapel. The church is notable for the number of its young members that have entered fields of Christian service. the congregation supports several ministries and bible colleges and is active in local and foreign outreach programs. Arcadia Christian Church continues to provide spiritual guidance for the community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The town of Arcadia sprang up along the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad in 1890, and its oldest surviving congregation, Arcadia Christian Church, organized in 1894. Early worshipers shared a building with the local Methodists until a tornado around 1909 spurred them to raise their own sanctuary in 1910. A steam-locomotive bell given by the Santa Fe Railway in 1961 hung in the belfry — a fitting nod to the railroad that created the town.
Why it matters
Railroad towns and the churches that anchored them show how the rail network seeded whole communities across late-19th-century Texas.
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Related people
- · Rev. T. Patterson
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Dairy Industry in the Santa Fe Area
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The railroad hamlets of Arcadia, Alta Loma, and Algoa sprang up in the 1890s, and by the turn of the century their economy ran on citrus, figs, truck farming, and a fast-growing dairy trade. Creameries shipped butter and milk to Galveston and Houston by rail, and by the 1920s dairying was so common that, as locals told it, nearly everyone kept a cow. Stock laws, consolidation, and the postwar drift of workers to city jobs slowly squeezed the small operators, and the last Santa Fe-area dairy closed in the 1970s.
Alta Loma
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Named with the Spanish for "high land," Alta Loma rose on the gently swelling ground of inland Galveston County. In 1893 an investment company platted a townsite along a Santa Fe rail line and installed water, electric, and telephone systems to draw settlers, many of whom planted orchards and truck farms. Battered by the great 1900 storm, the town rebuilt and thrived on farming and dairying before its residents drifted toward Texas City's oil jobs; in 1978 it merged with Arcadia to form the city of Santa Fe.
Evergreen Cemetery
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When the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad set a depot near here, Henry J. Runge laid out the town of Arcadia in 1890, and a burial ground soon followed to serve the growing settlement. Evergreen Cemetery took in its first known burial in 1897, gained a formal association and state charter by 1907, and later became a resting place for the community's indigent residents. Volunteers restored its grounds in 1972.
Hitchcock Depot
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By local tradition, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad won its right-of-way through Emily Hitchcock's land in 1875 by promising a depot bearing her late husband's name. The railroad platted the town of Hitchcock in 1891, and the depot that opened by 1893 became a hub where passengers, freight, and farm produce all passed through. The last surviving GCSF depot in the area, it was moved to this spot in 1975 and turned into a museum in 1982.