Bethel Baptist Institutional Church - Jacksonville, FL
N 30° 20.160 W 081° 39.489
17R E 436737 N 3356201
The Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, built in 1904, is located in Jacksonville, Florida.
Waymark Code: WMC393
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 07/19/2011
Views: 2
The BETHEL BAPTIST INSTITUTIONAL CHURCH, NW. corner Caroline and Hogan Sts., is the outstanding Negro church in the city. Of Romanesque design, it is built of grayish-yellow concrete blocks ad a gray wooden belfry extends above the corner entrance to a black-shingled spire. The initial branch of the first church of the Baptist denomination was organized in Jacksonville in 1838 and was originally used by white and Negro worshippers. Its first meetings were held in the Government 'Block House,' near the site of the courthouse on Forsyth and Market Streets. In 1840 a chapel was built at the northeast corner of Duval and Newnan Streets, but this was sold to the Methodists in 1846. The fund purchased a plot of two acres in LaVilla, a residential section, where a small brick church was built. Pickets and outposts were stationed here during the War between the States whenever Jacksonville was occupied by Federal troops.
During the Reconstruction period an attempt was made to exclude Negroes from the organization. In court, it was decided that since the majority of the parishioners were colored, the church and its name belonged to them. As an aftermath, however, the Negroes sold the property to the white people, and bought a lot at Main and Union Streets where they built a frame building. In 1894 the church was incorporated by the State as the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church with authority to carry on social betterment and industrial training. It also has a publishing and tract-repository department. The present building was erected in 1903 and houses the second largest Negro congregation in the State. ---Florida - A Guide to the Southernmost State - Part II. Principal Cities - Jacksonville, 1939
From the Jacksonville Historical Society website:
ARCHITECT: M. H. Hubbard - Utica, N.Y.
BUILDER: William Stenson (construction superintendent)
NATIONAL REGISTER SITE
In 1838 the Baptist denomination was begun in Jacksonville by six people – four whites and two slaves – under the leadership of James McDonald, who became the first pastor. Within two years, the growing congregation had purchased property at the northeast corner of Duval and Newnan Streets, where they built the first church building in Jacksonville, Bethel Baptist Church. In 1844 they sold the property to the Presbyterians and built a new building in West LaVilla. At the close of the Civil War, members of the church went to court over the issue of separating the black and white members of the congregation. In 1868 a legal settlement was reached, by which the black members accepted $400 cash for their interest in the church property and withdrew to build a new church, which retained the Bethel Baptist name (the white congregation later became known as First Baptist Church, D-34).
After Bethel's church building was destroyed by the 1901 Fire, funds were raised to build a new church, and M. H. Hubbard of New York was chosen as architect. Hubbard's design is inventive and eclectic. The building, as well as the entire surrounding neighborhood, is dominated by the ornate bell tower that marks the church's main entrance and features an octagonal steeple sheathed in pressed metal shingles. A classically detailed cupola tops the central mansard roof, which covers the interior's handsome domed ceiling. Pyramidal roof towers define the ends of the building. Other decorative features include arches, dentilled cornices, and abundant art-glass. Bethel Baptist Institutional Church is architecturally one of Jacksonville's more interesting church buildings and is visually an important link between Downtown and Springfield.
There are obviously some discrepancies between the information in the Florida Guide and that posted on the Jacksonville Historical Society's website, but suffice it to say, the church is a beautiful and impressive structure in the Jacksonville area. The church congregation has grown by leaps and bounds over the years, and today the Bethel Baptist Institutional Church is actually a megachurch. In 1988, a 3-story educational and administrative building was constructed on a lot adjacent to the church and in the early 2000s, a new building, which includes a new sanctuary and family life center, was constructed to accommodate the large congregation.