Historical Markers in Bay City, Texas

Matagorda County · 1936

Early home of the Karankawa Indians. Landing place of LaSalle in 1685. Settled 1822-1836 by colonists of Stephen F. Austin. The municipality of Matagorda organized under the Mexican Government on March 6, 1834. Became…

Old Bay City Bank · 1965

Established 1898, four years after founding of Bay City. Private bank. Owners: Henry Rugeley, Frank Hawkins. This building erected 1903, site of many investment transactions important to Texas Gulf Coast development.…

Rugeley Building (Old City Bank) · 1965

Daily Tribune and Matagorda County Tribune · 1981

Publication of this newspaper, one of the oldest in the state still in operation, began about 1845 in the nearby town of Matagorda (22 miles south). The business was moved to Bay City in the 1890's, soon after the town…

Bay City Methodist Church · 1986

The origins of this congregation date to 1870, when circuit-riding ministers visited people living along the Colorado River at Red Bluff. Norman Savage (1826-1879), a church elder, served the small congregation, and the…

Elliott's Ferry · 1986

During the early days of Anglo-American colonization in Texas, the Matagorda Bay Prairie area was an important route for people traveling between settlements. A convenient river crossing was a necessity, and a ferry was…

Site of Early Bay City School · 1986

In 1901 this land was a pastoral scene of trees and a strawberry field outside the city limits. That year the Bay City Independent School District purchased most of this block for $300. A two-story, eight-room frame…

St. Mark's Episcopal Church · 1986

This congregation traces its roots to Christ Church, Matagorda, from which parish many of its early members had come following the relocation of the Matagorda county seat to Bay City in 1894. Formally organized in 1895…

Bay City Library · 1989

Organized in 1912, the Bay City Public Library was first housed in the J. P. Keller Insurance Company office. The non-profit Bay City Library Association, also formed in 1912, spearheaded community fund raising efforts…

Bay City Post Office · 1991

An election in the fall of 1894 resulted in the relocation of the Matagorda county seat from the city of Matagorda to Bay Prairie (now Bay City). D. P. Moore, the postmaster at the nearby small town of Elliott, owned…

Cedarvale Cemetery · 1991

The Cedarvale Cemetery traces its history to 1896, when Rufus A. Mathis was killed in a hunting accident and buried on land owned by D. P. Moore. At the time of his death, Mathis and other community leaders were in the…

Bethel Baptist Church · 1993

Lacking church facilities in their "North-end" African American neighborhood, Harris and Maria Anderson began to hold lay services in their home about 1904. They built a brush arbor and in 1905 organized the Bethel…

D.P. and Louise Moore House · 1994

Dolph Phenias (D.P.) Moore (1852-1928) moved to Matagorda County in 1869. He married Louise Wendel in 1879 and together they reared ten children. A successful merchant, rancher, and landowner, Moore sold the land on…

First Baptist Church of Bay City · 1994

Members of Trespalacios Baptist Church, a Matagorda County congregation established in the early 1850s, organized a Baptist church in the nearby community of Red Bluff in 1889. In 1895 they moved the church to the new…

First Presbyterian Church of Bay City · 1994

Within a year of becoming one of Bay City's original settlers in 1894, Alexander D. Hensley organized an interdenominational Sabbath school with the help of Gilford M. Magill. Early religious services were held in the…

Gaines-Rugeley-LeTulle House · 1994

Holman House · 1994

Spanish-American war veteran and Matagorda county judge (1908-1914) William Shields Holman and his wife Louise (Kaulbach) built this house in 1908-09. Designed by A.W. Large and constructed by contractor H. Speckles,…

Kilbride-Barkley House · 1994

Prominent ranchers, merchants, and civic leaders Edward John and Ann Elizabeth (Holt) Kilbride built this classical revival style house in 1910-11. The house is a good example of large scale residential properties built…

Mother Zion Missionary Baptist Church · 1994

The Rev. Basil Tolson, an African American farmer in eastern Matagorda county, joined with his neighbors in 1887 to form a Baptist congregation which they named Mount Zion Baptist Church. Tolson was elected pastor, and…

M.S. and Cora Alice Perry House · 1997

An architectural hybrid incorporating colonial revival and Queen Anne style elements, the M. S. (1872-1919) and Cora Alice (1883-1970) Perry House was erected in 1917 and 1918. A prominent community leader, Perry was…

Vine Grove Christian Church · 1997

After the 1865 Emancipation Proclamation, many of the more than 100 slave who once farmed cotton and sugar cane for John L. Thorpe remain on former plantation land, forming the Live Oak community. In 1867 Joseph Yeaman,…

Bay City U.S.O. Building · 1999

Erected in 1941 on land loaned by the Pierce Estate to serve both local citizens and World War ll military personnel at Camp Hulen in nearby Palacios, this is one of 16 United Service Organization (U.S.O.) facilities…

First Christian Church of Bay City · 2001

In 1894, the Bay City Town Company established the town of Bay City on Bay Prairie between the Colorado River and Caney Creek. As families moved to the new townsite, religious institutions, businesses and schools were…

First Berean Missionary Baptist Church · 2002

First Berean Missionary Baptist Church The congregation of the First Berean Missionary Baptist Church began formally meeting after emancipation in 1865. Members held worship services in homes, under trees and in a local…

Site of Hilliard High School · 2002

Site of Hilliard High School The Bay City African American community established a school in the 1890s, and A.A. Deleon served as its first teacher. Three others, A.G. Hilliard, A.P. Allen and J.J. Grundy, began shortly…

Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church · 2004

Tradition holds that slaves from nearby plantations once gathered together in worship in the Lower Caney Creek area. These men and women continued their services after the close of the Civil War and by 1885 acquired…

Holy Cross Catholic Church · 2006

In May 1847, the Catholic church established a new frontier diocese in Galveston. During the next several years, many Polish Catholic immigrants moved to Matagorda County, and priests from nearby towns visited their…

Lukefahr School Community · 2008

In 1910, Casper Lukefahr came with family to this area from Nebraska. He donated property (1 mi. W) for a community school, which was named for him. The school was open until 1939, when the common school district of…

Philip H. Parker Post No. 2438, V.F.W. · 2011

THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES (VFW), FOUNDED IN 1899, TRACES ITS ROOTS TO MILITARY VETERANS SECURING RIGHTS AND BENEFITS FOR THEIR SERVICE. FOLLOWING AN INITIAL JUL. 21, 1940 MEETING AT THE OLD…

Dr. Henry Hofmann Loos · 2012

Henry Hofmann Loos (1887-1963) graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1908 with a B.A. in the summer of 1911, Dr. Loos interned at the Government Hospital in Colon, Panama Canal Zone. He graduated with an M.D. in…

Sargent-Rugeley House · 2015

By the turn of the twentieth century, Bay City was a flourishing community with houses and buildings constructed all over the city. John Thomas Sargent (1834-1911), a prominent cattleman, purchased a home in Matagorda…

Linnie Roberts Elementary School · 2020

By 1894, Matagorda County had 20 African American schools with more than 700 students. The first school for African American children in Bay City was a one-room frame building donated by one of the railroad companies.…

City Hall and Fire Station, 1928