Salado Church of Christ
Salado, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded in March 1859, this congregation first met in a brush arbor on the north bank of Salado Creek. The first two elders were James Anderson and J.W. Vickrey, both of whom were instrumental in the organization of Salado College. A frame sanctuary, erected on North Main Street in 1875, was destroyed by fire in 1908. A second frame structure served the congregation until 1961, when it was replaced by a brick sanctuary. A new building was erected in 1988. This church has served the people of Salado for over a century. (1988)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This congregation began in 1859 under a brush arbor on the bank of Salado Creek, its first elders also helping to found nearby Salado College. Fire, time, and growth carried the church through a succession of sanctuaries — an 1875 frame building lost to flames in 1908, a replacement, and finally brick structures in the modern era. Through it all the congregation remained a fixture of the small central Texas community.
Why it matters
Frontier churches like this one doubled as the schools and civic anchors of new Texas towns, knitting scattered settlers into lasting communities.
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Related people
- · James Anderson
- · J.W. Vickrey
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Home of Wellborn Barton
Salado, TX
Wellborn Barton (1821–1883) was a pioneer physician who practiced across this region of central Texas and served for many years as a trustee of Salado College, founded in 1866. His home stood where two great arteries of the era passed by — the old military road and the Chisholm cattle trail. The house was built by contractor John Hendrickson.
Alice Gray Hamblen
Salado, TX
Born in Mississippi in 1846, Alice Gray Hamblen moved with her husband to Salado in 1868 and threw herself into the life of Salado College, the local private school. A devoted champion of education, she boarded relatives' children so they could attend. When the old college building was condemned in 1924, she offered the Hamblen family homestead as the site for the new Salado public school.
Norton-Orgain House
Salado, TX
Built about 1872 by Edward R.A. Buckles, this two-story Salado house pairs Doric columns below with Victorian turned woodwork above. Confederate veteran Colonel Nimrod Lindsay Norton bought it in 1873; a member of the Capitol Building Commission, he donated Burnet County granite for the state capitol's exterior. In 1882 it passed to educators John and Kate Orgain, who taught at Salado College and area schools and left their own mark on the town.
Armstrong-Adams House
Salado, TX
Dr. David H. Armstrong, one of the first trustees of Salado's public free schools, built this home with his wife Julia between 1869 and 1872. It passed through a line of Salado physicians, including Dr. D. G. Adams and Dr. J. E. Guthrie, and shows off Greek Revival touches — a classical portico carried on Doric piers over the entry.