Lytle Cove

Lytle Cove, also known as Lytle, is in a natural cove west of Lytle Creek, three miles east of U.S. Highway 83, and twelve miles south of Abilene in southeastern Taylor County. The cove and creek were named for John Lytle, who settled in the area for a time about 1870. The first permanent settlers arrived later in the decade and established sheep ranches in the area. The community was granted a post office, called Lytle, in 1880, but the office was closed the next year. In 1887 residents went to Abilene to dismantle and transport an old Chinese laundry building that had been donated to Lytle Cove as a schoolhouse, and the school opened in the winter of that year. By 1902 the school had forty-four pupils and one teacher and also served as a meeting place for Church of Christ services. In 1916 the school was consolidated with that of Potosi. The church continued to use the school building as late as the 1940s. By the 1980s the community consisted of a few scattered dwellings.