Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, a cornerstone of Jupiter’s African American community, was organized in 1902 by the Reverend J. A. Wannamaker and the pioneer families of Simmons, Campbell, Ford, Bush, and Davis. These early settlers arrived here from North Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, and homesteaded 160-acre plots along Limestone Creek and the Loxahatchee River. Since the church’s founding, Mt. Carmel deacons and deaconesses have been community leaders, founding and supporting the once-segregated volunteer fire department, schools, and civic organizations. The original church, a small wood frame building built in 1902, was moved to this location in 1915 when Glover Sapp donated two acres of land for the church and a cemetery. It was rebuilt twice by its members after the destructive hurricanes of 1926 and 1928. This building was constructed in 1953 and was expanded in 1979 and again in 1997. The church’s cemetery, the only church-affiliated African American burial ground in northern Palm Beach County, includes over 500 graves, the earliest of which are unmarked. The church and the cemetery reflect the important social history and continued spiritual values of this close-knit community.