First Presbyterian Church
Sherman, Grayson County, Texas
Marker Inscription
By 1870, the Presbyterian Church in the United States sent the Rev. R.E. Sherrill to organize new congregations in northeast Texas. He led a group of Sherman residents in forming a church in 1871, and by late 1874 the members had constructed a sanctuary on Travis Street, between Pecan and Mulberry streets. Throughout the 1870s, the city of Sherman grew as a result of new rail lines through the community. The congregation, known as First Presbyterian Church, grew along with the city. By 1886, the church had established a chapel in a growing part of town, and in 1894 the congregation moved to a larger sanctuary at the corner of Travis and Mulberry. After Austin College moved to Sherman in 1876, First Presbyterian fostered a strong relationship with its students and faculty, leading to the creation of a new congregation, the College Park Presbyterian Church, closer to campus. First Church and the school's pre-ministerial students also established a short-lived Sunday School mission in the 1940s. During the 20th century, First Church's members maintained other educational services, including kindergarten and pre-school programs, as well as foreign mission projects. For more than a century, First Presbyterian Church grew and served its community, building new facilities as needed. The congregation developed close ties with the Trinity United Presbyterian congregation (Sherman), with which it united in 1995, forming Covenant Presbyterian Church. Today, Covenant Presbyterian continues the programs and services established by its historic congregations in their decades of work and worship in Sherman. (2005)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Organized in 1871 by the Rev. R.E. Sherrill, First Presbyterian Church of Sherman grew alongside a city booming from new rail lines through northeast Texas. After Austin College relocated to Sherman in 1876, the congregation forged lasting ties with its students and faculty, even spinning off a campus-area church, and later ran kindergarten and pre-school programs. In 1995 it united with Trinity United Presbyterian to form Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Why it matters
The congregation illustrates how railroads, a relocated college, and Presbyterian mission work shaped a growing Gilded Age Texas town.
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Related people
- · Rev. R.E. Sherrill
Related events
- · Formation of Covenant Presbyterian Church (1995)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Trinity United Presbyterian Church
Sherman, TX
This congregation began in 1851 when the Rev. W.A. Provine gathered Sherman residents into a Cumberland Presbyterian church, one of many the denomination planted across antebellum Grayson County. Meeting first in the Masonic hall and later its own 1872 sanctuary, the church changed names across the generations — Grace, then Central, and finally Trinity United Presbyterian — as it moved and grew, emphasizing youth and mission work throughout. In 1995 it merged with Sherman's First Presbyterian Church to create Covenant Presbyterian.
Kidd-Key College and Music Conservatory
Sherman, TX
Founded in 1875 as North Texas Female College, a Methodist finishing school for young women, this Sherman institution was rechartered in 1919 as a junior college and music conservatory. It took its later name from Lucy Ann Kidd-Key, the celebrated educator who led the school from 1888 to 1916 and built its reputation in music, literature, and the fine arts. Through its faculty and students, the college shaped culture well beyond North Texas.
Sherman Little Theater (The Sherman Community Players)
Sherman, TX
As the Little Theater movement spread across Texas in the 1920s, Sherman citizens formed their own community theater in December 1925, led by architect Rollin M. Rolfe and other local figures. Their first production came in 1926, and that same year they won first place in Texas's inaugural Little Theater competition in Dallas. Incorporated in 1950 as the Sherman Community Players, the group built the Finley Playhouse in 1954 and has remained a fixture of the city's cultural life.
Site of Old Sherman Opera House
Sherman, TX
Completed in 1881, the Sherman Opera House was a grand three-story Victorian building with twin cupolas, built by Capt. L. F. Ely from bricks fired in his own city factory. Its plush interior—carpeted aisles, damask curtains, and red seats, with cheaper benches nicknamed the "Buzzard Roost"—hosted everything from its opening production of "The Mikado" to Shakespeare, musical reviews, and temperance lectures. It served as Sherman's cultural heart until it closed in 1918.