Central Christian Church
Texarkana, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded in 1883 with the Rev. J. C. Mason as first pastor, the Central Christian Church congregation built this structure in 1932. Construction was supervised by architect and church member E. C. Seibert (1878-1941), who used carefully placed bricks to achieve a distinctive pattern. Of Tudor Gothic Revival style, the basilica-plan sanctuary with cast-stone details and pointed-arch windows is connected to an educational wing by a pointed-arch arcade. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1987
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1883 under the Rev. J. C. Mason, the Central Christian Church congregation raised this Tudor Gothic Revival sanctuary in 1932 under the supervision of architect and church member E. C. Seibert, who set the brick in a distinctive decorative pattern. Cast-stone details, pointed-arch windows, and a pointed-arch arcade linking sanctuary and education wing mark its careful design. It remains a landmark of Texarkana's ecclesiastical architecture.
Why it matters
The church reflects the craftsmanship and civic ambition of a congregation that helped anchor Texarkana's growth from the 1880s onward.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · J. C. Mason
- · E. C. Seibert
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Texarkana
Texarkana, TX
Texarkana was born from a railroad land auction in December 1873, when the Texas & Pacific platted lots to open a regional shipping point at a spot long used as an Indian trade trail between the Mississippi and Mexico. Its distinctive name, blending Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana, had been floating around before the town even existed, claimed by everyone from a physician to a medicine-show barker. Incorporated separately on each side of the state line, it grew from 40 auction-goers into a city of tens of thousands within a century.
Ellis House
Texarkana, TX
Built in 1893 for realtor and loan agent Gaither Booker Ellis and his wife Mary, this two-story Victorian rose in a Texarkana still riding the growth of a young railroad city. Local builder Charles R. Korn gave it an asymmetrical plan, a tower later removed in the 1920s, and porches trimmed with jigsawn brackets on both stories. It survives as a designed expression of Gilded Age domestic taste.
John F. Floyd House
Texarkana, TX
John F. Floyd came out of the Civil War a Confederate veteran and rebuilt his life in the booming railroad town of Texarkana, where he settled in 1881 and prospered in the lumber trade. In 1903 he had this family home built in the fashionable style of the moment, a graceful step from Victorian ornament toward the cleaner lines of Classical Revival. Palladian windows, art-glass transoms, and paired porch colonnettes mark the taste of a self-made businessman at the turn of the century.
"Ace of Clubs" House
Texarkana, TX
Built in 1884 by J. H. Draughan, the "Ace of Clubs" House takes its playful name from its floor plan: three groups of octagonal rooms — the leaves of a club — open onto a central rotunda, with rectangular rooms forming the club's stem. The rotunda rises into a twenty-foot tower and is finished with a marble mantel, French mirrors, and a spiral stair. The Henry Moore family made it their home from 1894 onward.