Historical Markers in Bryan, Texas

Albert Gallatin · 1936

From the intersection of SH 6 and FM 974 (north Bryan) take FM 974 approx. 8 miles to Dick Elliott Rd.; take Elliott Rd. NW approx. 2.2 miles to Bickham Cemetery Rd.; then NE on cemetery road approx. 1 mile to cemetery.

Brazos County · 1936

Brazos County, part of Stephen F. Austin’s colony, was created from Washington County in 1841. It was first named Navasota County, with Boonville as the county seat. In 1842 the name was changed to Brazos County.…

Site of the Town of Boonville · 1936

Established in 1841 as the county seat of Navasota County by John Millican, John H. Jones, J. Ferguson, E. Seale, and Mordecai Boon whose name it bears. The name of the county was changed to Brazos in 1842. Boonville…

Brazos County Confederate Commissioners Court · 1965

Furnished horses, equipment and clothing for county men in the Civil War. Levied war taxes on property, exempting lands or estates of Confederate soldiers. After surveying to determine needs of the families of Brazos…

Harvey Mitchell · 1965

Came to Texas from Tennessee in 1839, and joined "minute men" protecting north frontier from Trinity to Brazos River. Moved to Brazos County; served 1842-1853 in County offices: Deputy Clerk, County Clerk, Surveyor,…

Town Named for William Joel Bryan · 1965

(1814-1903) Native of Missouri. Member of prominent family who were Texas statesmen, planters, developers. Grandson of Moses Austin, who obtained from Mexico charter for American colony in Texas, but died before making…

First Baptist Church, Bryan, Texas · 1966

"Bryan Station, Brazos County, Nov. 21, 1866...I hope a better day is dawning, for last Sabbath a Baptist church was organized here and 16 members united with it," wrote Mrs. Sara Dodson. One block west of this site…

Bryan City Cemetery · 1968

Established on June 13, 1868, three years after the townsite of Bryan was dedicated. Land for the graveyard--20 acres then on the northern edge of Bryan--was sold to the city for $100 by landowner J.C. Hubert. The first…

Carnegie Public Library · 1969

-- (RTHL medallion only)

First Presbyterian Church · 1970

Organized Nov. 21, 1867, in the Presbytery of Brazos by The Rev. J.H. Hutchinson, this apparently was the second denominational group in Bryan. In 1871, members themselves built their first sanctuary at Washington and…

Robert Henry · 1970

(March 7, 1801 - October 29, 1865) One of victors in Battle of San Jacinto. Born in Ireland; came to America, 1820, and here to Robertson's Colony, 1832. A staunch Presbyterian, kept true to faith at risk of life. In…

Site of Odd Fellows University and Orphans Home · 1972

Founded 1870 by Odd Fellows lodge. Housed in a 2-story frame building. Taught drawing, English, French, German, Greek, Latin, music, philosophy, geometry, trigonometry, science, surveying, penmanship. Had primary to…

Site of First Public School in Bryan · 1973

At the polls on Oct. 29, 1877, the City of Bryan voted to establish a free public graded school--a very progressive step in an era of private schools. Interested citizens immediately bought and donated this block for…

Alexander Cemetery · 1974

There was a schoolhouse near this site in 1854 when, according to tradition, the first interment was made here. That early grave, for a child by the name of Whitley, had no marker and has been lost. This land was part…

Black Education in Bryan · 1975

On March 30, 1885, the City of Bryan purchased seven lots in this area as a site for a public school to provide separate but equal and impartial instruction for black children of the community, as prescribed by the…

First Methodist Church of Bryan · 1976

Among the circuit riders who preached to early Methodists in this area were The Rev. Robert Alexander, presiding elder of the district, and The Rev. H.V. Philpott, who conducted services in a hall above a saloon. The…

South Methodist Episcopal Church · 1976

Allen Academy · 1978

This school originated as Madison Academy, founded in 1886 in Madisonville by John Hodges Allen (1854-1920), an educator from Mississippi. When his brother Rivers O. Allen (1865-1925) joined him in 1896, the institution…

Astin-Porter Home · 1980

Built for Onah (Ward) Astin (d. 1944), the wife of cotton planter James H. Astin (d. 1897), this house was designed by the Waco firm of Howard Messer and S. Wemyss Smith. Construction began in 1901 and was completed two…

E. J. Jenkins House · 1982

This house was constructed in 1893 by prominent Bryan builder Charlie Jenkins for his brother Edwin James Jenkins (1867-1959). A native of England, E.J. Jenkins came to Bryan in 1878. He operated a drugstore in downtown…

Waldrop House · 1983

Designed by Houston architects Jones & Tabor, this home was built for Allister (1877-1936) and Nanne Waldrop in the early 1900s. Waldrop, a prominent area retail merchant, also served as President of the Bryan School…

Wesa Weddington · 1983

Granddaughter of Harvey Mitchell, a pioneer settler of Brazos County, Wesa Weddington began teaching Latin and Spanish in 1903 in Bryan public schools. She received a Masters Degree in 1918 from Columbia University and…

Wilkerson House · 1983

Built in 1912 by noted Bryan architect and contractor Charlie Jenkins, this home is located in a neighborhood where many of the town's business leaders lived during the 1910s and 1920s. Owned by banker A.W. Wilkerson…

Eugene Edge Home · 1985

This Queen Anne style residence features a two-story wraparound porch with a decorative balustrade. The front porch, with its Doric columns and triangular pediment over the entryway, exhibits elements of the Colonial…

McMichael-Wilson House · 1985

Constructed in 1904 for lumberman and Brazos County clerk George Washington McMichael (1854-1904), this Queen Anne style home was purchased in 1912 by prominent planter Alfred Flournoy Wilson. It remained in the Wilson…

The Woman's Club · 1989

Founded in October 1895 as the Mutual Improvement Circle, this organization began with twenty members. Initially gathering in individual homes, the club met as a study group to improve members' minds, serve the…

Edge House · 1991

Completed in 1925 for the family of prominent Bryan merchant Eugene Edge (1879-1954) and his wife Cora Zulch (d. 1939), this two-and-one-half story brick house reflects the Georgian Revival style. Defining features…

Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church · 1992

This parish traces its origin to Episcopal services held in nearby Millican in 1864. A yellow fever epidemic in the Millican area prompted the relocation of the Saint Andrew's Mission to Bryan in 1867. A parish was…

Charlie Eric Jenkins · 1993

English native Charlie E. Jenkins came to America in 1873 and to Bryan in 1878. One of Bryan's most prolific and talented builders of the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Jenkins' legacy of distinctive structures has…

Cavitt House · 1994

Attorney William R. Cavitt (1849-1924) purchased a city block here in 1875, the year he married Mary Mitchell. Cavitt became Brazos County Attorney in 1878 and about 1880 he and Mary built a brick Italianate residence…

St. Joseph School · 1994

The Rev. Joseph Pelnar of Bryan's St. Joseph Catholic Church erected a parish school building here in the early 1890s. The children of East European immigrant families dominated student enrollment at St. Joseph's until…

Bryan & College Interurban Railway · 1995

Bryan mayor J.T. Maloney and the city's Retail Merchants Association incorporated the Bryan & College Interurban Railway Company in 1909. The company was created to establish an interurban railway service between Bryan,…

James Wilson · 1997

(1821-1904) Ireland native James Wilson immigrated to the United States in 1842. He graduated in 1847 from Lafayette College in Boston, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1850, the year he was ordained as a…

St. Joseph Catholic Church · 1997

Although Catholic worship services were celebrated in Bryan by 1869, this church traces its history to the early 1870s. The first church building was erected about 1871 for a small active parish. The Reverend John Moore…

La Salle Hotel · 2001

Occupying a prominent corner in the southern end of Bryan's central business district, the La Salle hotel is an architectural landmark representative of the city's early 20th-century commercial development. At that…

Mount Calvary Cemetery · 2004

Bryan's St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church began in 1873 with a congregation that drew from the city as well as rural communities in the area. For the next 25 years, the church used existing cemeteries for the burials of…

Martin's Place · 2005

In December 1924, Martin Kapchinskie purchased land at this site, along a one-lane country road connecting Bryan to Texas A&M University, near the communities of Union Hill and Midway. Here, he opened a store for…

Site of Villa Maria Ursuline Academy · 2005

The Ursuline Sisters, founded by St. Angela in Italy in 1535, opened their first girls' school in North America in Quebec in 1639. In 1727, they opened the Ursuline Academy in New Orleans, followed in 1847 with the…

Isom Palmer · 2006

Isom Palmer, whose name has various spellings, was born to Martin and Sarah (Hardwick) Parmer. In 1825, the Palmer (Parmer) family moved to Texas, settling near Nacogdoches the next year, and participated in the 1826…

Old Bethel Cemetery · 2008

Area pioneer, Mary A. Williams, donated land for this burial ground to Bethel Church in 1869. It has served residents of the Harvey community and the surrounding area since that time. The cemetery is named Old Bethel…

Reliance Church Cemetery · 2008

Two Bryan attorneys, M.J. Beale and B.K. Davis, donated four acres of land at this site in April 1874 for the purpose of establishing the Reliance Baptist Church, School and Cemetery. The community was originally called…

Steep Hollow Cemetery · 2008

FM 1179 and Steep Hollow Road

The CW&BV and I&GN Railroads in Bryan · 2009

Bryan was platted on land granted to the Houston & Texas Central Railroad in 1859. In 1900, a second railroad, the Calvert, Waco & Brazos Valley (CW&BV) was built through Bryan by George Gould. The CW&BV built a depot…

Wipprecht House · 2010

Designed in 1898 by Bryan architect George Washington Jenkins, this home was constructed for Julia Kapp Wipprecht, who was a well-known local philanthropist. Mrs. Wipprecht lived in the home until here 1919 death, after…

Confederate Veterans in Bryan City Cemetery · 2011

THE CIVIL WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH GREATLY AFFECTED BRAZOS COUNTY. WAR HALTED PROGRESS OF THE HOUSTON & TEXAS CENTRAL RAILWAY AND MADE MILLICAN A BOOMTOWN. AFTER THE WAR, THE RAILROAD CREATED A NEW TOWN, BRYAN CITY, AND…

Allen Chapel A. M. E. Church · 2012

Methodism among African American Texans predates the Civil War with the First Church being established in 1848. The earliest known African American minister in Brazos County was reverend Emmanuel Hammitt who served…

Ibarra Elementary School · 2012

IBARRA ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN 1935, THE BRYAN SCHOOL BOARD ELECTED TO CONSTRUCT A TWO-ROOM, WOODEN SCHOOL BUILDING FOR SPANISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN FOR GRADES ONE THROUGH FOUR. THE SITE CHOSEN WAS ON THE JOE BATTS PROPERTY…

Queen Theatre · 2012

QUEEN THEATRE A MOVIE THEATRE HAS BEEN AT THIS LOCATION SINCE 1913 AND NAMED “THE QUEEN” SINCE 1914. IT WAS ORIGINALLY LOCATED IN THE THREE-STORY STODDARD HOTEL BUILT HERE IN 1889. THE SCHULMAN FAMILY PURCHASED THE…

Santa Teresa Catholic Church · 2015

In 1929, Father Frank D. Urbanovsky, known as Padre Panchito, came to Bryan to assist the pastor at St. Joseph Catholic Church. He soon began to travel the countryside and minister to the Mexican and Mexican American…

Bryan Air Force Base · 2016

During World War II, construction of Bryan Army Air Field (Bryan AAF) began in August 1942. The U.S. Army Air Forces site grew out of a war department initiative to train pilots and instructors. The site was the only…

First Christian Church of Bryan/College Station · 2016

Bryan was first platted as a town in 1860 and was formally incorporated as the city of Bryan in 1871. The First Christian Church was organized in Bryan in 1866 and early meetings were held in local businesses and…

Old Bryan City Cemetery · 2018

1300 block of the North Earl Rudder Freeway West Frontage Road

Boonville Cemetery · 2019

Grandview Cemetery · 2019

From Bryan take Texas Ave. (Bus. Hwy 6) north 1 mile to Hwy 21 east. Turn right on Hwy 21 east for a mile. Grandview Cemetery is located just south of the Circle K truck stop at the intersection of Hwy 6 and Hwy 21 east.

Alexander Methodist Chapel

Organized in 1854 by Robert Alexander, Circuit Rider. First church built of hand-hewn logs in 1856 by early settlers, George Fullerton, Hugh Henry, Jim Walker, John Walker, E.W. Thompson and others. Ten acres of church…

First National Bank of Bryan

The First National Bank of Bryan traces its history to 1862 when its earliest predecessor, a private lending agency, was established by W.H. Flippen and Milton Parker in Millican. In 1867, after the Houston and Texas…