Nacogdoches: Zion Hill Historic District

Wood framed church with bell tower and side entrance

Zion Hill Baptist Church

Church interior taken from loft area. Interior is faced with horizontal boards, varnished

Zion Hill Baptist Church interior (City of Nacogdoches Office of Historic Preservation)

Two small wood framed buildings with sheet metal roofing

Zion Hill Historic District Homes

Two small wood framed houses, one pained olive green and the other painted royal blue

Zion Hill Historic District Homes

One storey brick school building named Nacogdoches Independent School District E.J. Campbell Administration Building

E.J. Campbell High School, former segregated school for African Americans (Pictures of Historic Nacogdoches)

African American teenagers seated with a white woman in a room with a checkerboard tiled floor

Students at E.J. Campbell High School (East Texas Digital Archives)

Photograph dated December 1956 of two adults and a small child in front of an old house

African American citizens of Zion Hill Historic District (East Texas Digital Archives)

A football game in progress

E.J. Campbell High School Football Team (East Texas Digital Archives)

Line of people marching on a sidewalk in a commercial area with signs saying Respect the Black and Equal Rights

African American Civil Rights protesters in Nacogdoches (East Texas Digital Archives)

African American girls in drill team uniforms and cowboy hats posed in front of school

E.J. Campbell Drill Team (East Texas Digital Archives)

Phototgraph of Faye Rison wearing a dress and pearls dated November 1960

Faye Rison, student at E.J. Campbell High School (East Texas Digital Archives)

The history of this district is typical of many southern U.S. communities after the Civil War. Zion Hill was home primarily to service workers, including shop porters, servants, maids, cooks and groundskeepers for affluent white families living on nearby Mound Street. One-story framed shotgun houses dominate the area. The Gothic Revival-style 1914 Zion Hill Baptist Church anchors the neighborhood.  Nearby, the E.J. Campbell High School building still stands a testament to the legacy of segregation and a reminder of community spirit. 

Zion Hill Historic District

  • Roughly bounded by Park Street, the Lanana Creek, Oak Grove Cemetery, and North Lanana Street, Nacogdoches, TX
  • 936-560-4443 
  • Visit Website
  • National Register of Historic Places
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