The Little House of Fellowship
Canyon, Randall County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Canyon City Episcopalians began holding worship services in 1910. By 1928, plans were drawn for construction of a student center to meet the needs of a growing church congregation and student population at West Texas Normal College. Opened the next year adjacent to the church's chapel, the Little House of Fellowship became a social and religious center for students. After the congregation moved closer to campus in 1964, the side-gabled, running bond brick little house became available for commercial use. Its main façade features a potted chimney, a central door flanked by windows with stone springers on semicircular arches, and two other pairs of semicircular arched windows. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2010
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Canyon's Episcopalians began worshipping in 1910, and by 1929 they opened the Little House of Fellowship beside their chapel as a social and religious center for the growing student body at West Texas Normal College. After the congregation moved nearer campus in 1964, the brick building found new commercial life. Its arched windows and potted chimney mark it as a small but distinctive piece of Panhandle architecture.
Why it matters
The little house reflects how churches built community around the young state colleges that reshaped the Texas Panhandle in the early twentieth century.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Clyde & Grace Warwick
Canyon, TX
Iowa natives Clyde and Grace Warwick came to Canyon City in the early 1900s and married in 1911, becoming pillars of Panhandle life. Clyde edited The Canyon News for 45 years, won journalism honors, served as a state representative, and helped found the Panhandle-Plains Historical Society. Grace, among the first graduates of West Texas Normal College, was a school superintendent, writer, and author of The Randall County Story, still a foundational work of local history.
Shaw-Keiser House
Canyon, TX
Banker and civic leader Travis Shaw, who managed West Texas State Normal College, commissioned Dallas architects Lang and Witchell to design this brick Craftsman home, built by local contractors in 1908–09. Land developer, banker, and newspaper owner C.O. Keiser bought the house in 1911 and added a second story with fine Craftsman detailing by a master carpenter. Its gallery porches, pyramidal roof, and exposed rafter tails typify the style.
C.R. Burrow House
Canyon, TX
Charles Richard Burrow came to Canyon City in 1899 to clerk at Eagle Hardware and by 1919 owned it outright, renaming it Burrow Lumber Company. A mayor, city commissioner, and president of the state lumbermen's association, he also quietly funded the educations of many students at what became West Texas A&M University. In 1911 architect O. G. Roquemore designed this two-story Craftsman bungalow for Burrow and his wife Bula, with dormers, exposed rafter ends, and brick porch columns.
Georgia O'Keeffe in Canyon
Canyon, TX
Before she became one of America's most celebrated artists, Georgia O'Keeffe taught in the Texas Panhandle, drawn by what she called "the openness. The dry landscape." From 1916 to 1918 she taught at West Texas State Normal College in Canyon, where the sweep of Palo Duro Canyon pushed her toward the bold abstraction that would define her work. She exhibited her Texas pieces in New York in 1917 and carried the region's influence for the rest of her life.