Tyler in the 1880s19 cards: 5 firsts, 2 claimed firsts and 12 beginnings
- Tyler’s Catholics become a parish200 members in 1880; many early parishioners were Irish railroad workers.
- Smith County’s fourth jail goes upLater the Lewis Hotel, until 1986.
- Tyler’s first fire departmentA 25-member volunteer company under John B. Douglas.
- Tyler Colored High School, called the first known Black schoolA private school with John F. Anderson as principal.
- Tyler’s first public school opensIn the former East Texas Institute; Hubbard School followed in 1886.
- Voters approve a water plant on Victory LakeA private pond on Turtle Creek; Lake Bellwood followed in 1894.
- Land is bought for a Jewish cemeteryBought by Hyman Liebreich, Abe Harris and Jacob Lipstate.
- By 1885: a waterworks, an opera house and an ice factoryTwo banks and two weekly newspapers, too.
- Tyler’s first ice factory, as the city’s survey tells itBefore it, ice came from Missouri and only the wealthy could afford it.
- The Grande Opera House opensRudolph Bergfeld helped open it.
- Moore Grocery, Tyler’s first wholesale groceryFrom a market on East Ferguson to a three-story brick warehouse.
- Congregation Beth El is founded53 men; their first temple was dedicated in 1889.
- Calvary Baptist, the first known white suburban churchA mission in north Tyler; the mother church became First Baptist.
- The Cotton Belt’s hospital for railroad workersAt West Elm Street and the tracks, for 17 years.
- Electric light comes to TylerJ. D. Moody, F. L. Dilley and John Durst form the power company.
- West End Negro School, Tyler’s first public school for Black childrenTyler’s first public school for African Americans, the wood-frame West End Negro School at Herndon and Front streets, was paid for with a $6,000 bond issue after a committee of Black residents asked for it.
- Cedar Street Methodist is organized as Tyler City MissionIt began as a Sunday school in a new neighborhood north of town.
- Savas Xydias, one of Tyler’s first Middle Eastern residentsHe arrived in 1889 and opened a bakery in 1890.
- St. James CME, the oldest surviving Black church building in TylerAt 408 North Border Avenue; bricked and remodeled about 1920.