First Presbyterian Church of San Benito
San Benito, Cameron County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This church was organized in 1910, three years after the founding of San Benito. The first building, a frame structure completed in 1911, served the congregation until a hurricane destroyed it in 1933. The following year, this building ws constructed. Funded in part by a Federal Government loan, it was known as America's first Public Works Administration church. The structure's Mission Revival style features arched gable parapets.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1910, just three years after San Benito was founded, this Rio Grande Valley congregation lost its first frame sanctuary to a 1933 hurricane. The following year it rebuilt with help from a federal loan, earning the distinction of being called America's first Public Works Administration church. Its Mission Revival design, marked by arched gable parapets, roots it firmly in the architecture of the South Texas borderlands.
Why it matters
The church is a rare marker of how New Deal public-works funding reached even into houses of worship, rebuilding communities battered by both storm and Depression.
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