Historic Downtown Palatka church demolished
To some, like Mischa Johns, a Putnam County archivist, it's more than a church.
'So gently announced as 'a church,' but it's not just 'a church,'' she stated in a Facebook post. 'It's over a century of history in our African American community and it's being razed ... We have failed this beautiful old church, and my heart is broken for another lost piece of history.'
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The following is from Mt. Tabor Baptist Church's website
Following the Civil War within the Reconstruction Era, the institution known as Mount Tabor First Baptist Church was officially established. The church was organized during a 'Wednesday Prayer Meeting,' on the 15th day of September, 1869, in Palatka, Florida. The original meeting place was in the 'Hudson Building' and the second meeting place was a nicely constructed 'Brush Arbor' (a rough, open-sided shelter constructed of vertical poles driven into the ground with additional long poles laid across the top as support for a roof of brush, cut branches or hay) built with the choicest shrubs.
Within the first two years (1869-1871), three ministers, Reverend R. P. Bishop, Reverend Jones, and Reverend Samuel Small formed the ministerial council that ordained the first Deacons: Jackson Wright, Ned Hutchinson and James Arnold. Reverend William Bell served as the first regular pastor (1871-1889) and also served two subsequent pastorates (1896-1898) & (1900-1902). In 1887, during Reverend Bell's pastorate it became a reality for this band of Christian believers to leave the 'brush arbor' and the congregation relocated to a newly built wooden church edifice at 913 Reid Street in downtown Palatka, which was dedicated on May 18, 1888. In 1912, the church facility was rebuilt under the leadership of Reverend F.W. Wells.
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