Fire Destroys Oldest Church in Central Texas Town

A fire has destroyed the oldest standing church in the Central Texas town of Gatesville.

City Fire Chief Billy Vaden told the Killeen Daily Herald that the First Christian Church caught fire early Tuesday morning. He calls it a “total loss.” He says they haven’t yet determined the cause.

The church was deeded to the Coryell County Museum in 1990.

Michael Barr, a Coryell County Museum board member, says the church’s congregation stopped using the facility in 1972. But the building was still rented for weddings remained the site of a men’s Sunday school class.

Barr says the simple wood church, built around 1892, was “a great place to get married.”

Gatesville, population about 16,000, is 40 about miles west of Waco.