Port Lavaca, Calhoun County
Records indicate Episcopal worship services were held in Lavaca prior to the 1850s. By 1852 the Rev. Henry N. Pierce, rector of Christ Church in Matagorda, periodically came to conduct services here. The Rev. C. S. Hedges, with funding made possible by an Ohio benefactor, organized Grace Church in 1853. Deadly yellow fever epidemics in 1853 and 1855 devastated the church and the town. In 1874 the bishop ordered the church building moved to Cuero to serve a larger population. Grace Church survived, however, and a second building was secured in 1887. Destroyed by a hurricane in 1945, it was rebuilt by 1949. Grace Church regained parish status in 1951, and additional facilities were built to meet the church's needs in the following decades. (1998) Incise on back: Erected by Calhoun County Historical Commission; George Fred Rhodes, Chairman