Florida Historical Markers Programs - Marker Detail

Description: Beulah African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first house of worship in Wabasso to be affiliated with a national congregation. Its founders settled here in the early 1900s as laborers in agriculture, lumber, turpentine, and construction, the industries that formed the county’s early economy. Many congregants soon became successful entrepreneurs and property owners, including John Knowles, Sam Caswell, and Thomas Jackson – the three men who donated this land as a site for the church and school. The original sanctuary was built in 1916. It served as a classroom, as well, until the congregation’s commitment to education drew the attention of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. The school fund provided the seed money for Douglas Elementary School, built on this same donated tract in 1927. The teaching, spiritual inspiration, and fellowship fostered by these parishioners helped them defy racial barriers. Members became civic leaders, medical professionals, NASA engineers, business owners, educators, citrus growers, and decorated military veterans. The church was renamed Allen Chapel AME Church in 1943. This sanctuary, dedicated in 1957, is the third to be built on this site.