Buda Christian Church
Buda, Hays County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Organized in 1893, the Buda Christian Church met in the Methodist church building until a church was built on this site in 1903. After it was destroyed in a 1909 storm, this structure was built in 1912. Membership began to decline in the 1940s, and the congregation eventually disbanded. the building was used by various civic groups, and in 1981 housed a non-denominational church. The one-story frame structure features elements of the Italianate and classical revival styles, with a central, inset, pedimented entry; an offset tower; and pyramidal roof. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1986
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1893, the Buda Christian Church first shared the local Methodist building before raising its own sanctuary on this site in 1903. A storm leveled that structure in 1909, and the congregation rebuilt in 1912 in a modest frame design blending Italianate and classical revival touches. Membership faded after the 1940s and the congregation eventually disbanded, though the building found new life housing civic groups and, later, another church.
Why it matters
Small-town churches like this one were the social and spiritual anchors of rural Texas communities, and the building's survival preserves a piece of central Texas's turn-of-the-century architecture.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Baptist Church of Buda
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In July 1882, just a year after the founding of the railroad town then called Du Pre, three local men petitioned to form this Baptist congregation. Its first services were held in a schoolhouse and a Methodist chapel until the church built its own sanctuary in the 1890s. The congregation, long known as the Buda Baptist Church, moved into a new stone building in 1949 and took its present name in 1967.
Buda United Methodist Church
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Established in 1880 under the pioneer circuit rider Rev. Thomas Garrett, this congregation was the first church in the new railroad town of DuPre, later renamed Buda. Its first sanctuary went up on this site in 1882, just as rail lines reached the fledgling community. Over the generations its members included many of the area's founding settlers and civic leaders.
Buda
Buda, TX
Originally called Du Pre, this Hays County town was born in 1881 along the International and Great Northern Railroad after Cornelia A. Trimble donated the townsite land. The name "Buda," adopted late in the decade, has a murky origin â local legend ties it either to Budapest or to "viuda," the Spanish word for widow, honoring the women who cooked at a railroad hotel. In its heyday Buda boasted a theater, skating rink, newspaper, and two banks.
Barton Cemetery
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This ground was once part of a Mexican land grant awarded to empresario Ben Milam in 1826. James U. Barton brought his family from Alabama in the 1850s and established a farm here, and the cemetery's first burial is believed to be his infant granddaughter, who died in 1873. Barton formally deeded 3.25 acres for the graveyard in 1881, and it still serves the Mountain City community today.