Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Side One: In 1881, the Rev. Mr. Franklin of St. John’s Episcopal Chapel in Earleton led the service that began Trinity Church. The congregants met fortnightly in a member's home. When the congregation grew to 9 families, members organized a Ladies’ Aid Society and Sunday school. The congregation purchased land and made plans to build a church facing Bellamy Road, the first federal highway in Florida. In 1885, Bishop John Freeman Young organized Trinity Mission. In 1885-1886, carpenter E. L. Judd used locally cut heart pine to construct this Carpenter Gothic style church, designed by Richard Upjohn, architect of New York City’s Trinity Church. The walls are one board thick with battens inside and out. Simple modified scissor trusses support the roof. The Bishop's chair was purchased; a church member constructed the matching priest's chair and rererdos. The pier foundations and chimney were of brick from the nearby Campville Brick Works. The total cost for construction was $327.71. Trinity prospered as Melrose grew and by 1886, there were forty-eight baptized members. ". . . the priest's words echoed off the same lovely, dark walls that were there in 1885 . . ."-Al Burt. Side Two: The freeze of 1894-95 wiped out the citrus industry and brought an economic depression to the area. Despite difficulties, Trinity continued to be active, led by Bishop Edwin Gardner Weed. In 1895, Mr. Judd added a transept to the north end of the chapel. Stained glass lancet windows, shipped from England via Lake Santa Fe on the Alert steamboat, were added in 1915. The window behind the altar was installed in 1926. Boy Scout Troop 109 was formed in the 1920s. To encourage attendance, boys could come to meetings even if they had no shoes. In 1938-39, under the Rev. Mr. Fred G. Yerkes, Archdeacon of the Diocese of Florida, the church acquired additional property and the Scouts constructed a Scout Hut, later used as the Melrose Library. In 1948, a Camp Blanding chapel building was moved onto church property, and served as the parish house. It burned down in 1985. The replacement, Yerkes Hall, was completed in 1986. In 1987, to install a 1936 Moller organ originally from St. James Episcopal Church in Leesburg, the chimney was removed and a loft built for the pipes. The Gano-Norton building was constructed in 1996. Trinity Mission called its first full time priest in 2008 and became a parish in 2010.