First Christian Church Parsonage
a.k.a. #28
608 N. Penelope St., Belton, TXThe First Christian Church Parsonage was built in 1900 and represents a popular late Victorian house form. Contextually, the property relates to community and Regional Development, specifically to the growing establishment of social and religious institutions in Belton during the period of economic stability and community building in the peak years of the cotton boom around the turn of the century. The house meets National Register Criterion c, significant in the area of Architecture because it typifies the evolution of popular house forms from the L-plan vernacular house toward the bungalow form.
The old First Christian Church Parsonage was built in 1900 by the Belton First Christian Church as a parsonage, a capacity in which the house served until 1943. The church sold the house in that year and since then it has had a number of different owners.
The parsonage is an interesting example of a late Victorian dwelling. Although it belongs to no particular stylistic sub-group, it has elements of several different late19th century styles, among them Queen Anne (butt shingles in the gable), Eastlake (turned porch columns and banisters) and Italianate (segmental arch windows and string course). The pyramidal roofed cottage was a form much used in Belton for modest houses around the turn of the century. The brick construction, however, is unusual in a house of this type, most of which were frame structures.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.