Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Hickory Grove Baptist Church was organized in 1863, and the church’s congregation first worshiped here in one of the earliest buildings constructed in Clay County. The church was named for a grove of hickory trees that grew here. The original sanctuary was constructed of old growth yellow pine logs that were hewn by the volunteer labor of a detachment of Confederate soldiers stationed in Green Cove Springs. When the log building became unsafe for use, the congregation relocated to a nearby school house on Highland Street, where it remained until a sanctuary was rebuilt in 1913 on the location of the original church. When Highway 16 was rerouted, the church sold the 1913 building to the Florida Highway Department and purchased property on nearby South Oakridge Avenue for construction of a masonry block sanctuary. It was completed in 1955. The church’s cemetery is one of the oldest in Clay County and includes more than 300 graves, the oldest of which dates to 1849. The cemetery’s distinctive architectural features include obelisk markers and family plots surrounded by wrought iron fences.