Community Chapel of Melbourne Beach Florida
Non-Denominational
This historic Chapel, the oldest Church on the Beaches, has been the center of community religious life since it was built in 1892 on land donated in 1890 by Mr. And Mrs. Henry Whiting.
At a cost of $200 and a donation for interior finishing, the Chapel was constructed by volunteers from the Melbourne Beach Sunday School, a forerunner group of the Chapel.
The first Chapel Service was held on January 10, 1892 and Services were held in the afternoons and seasonally for many years. The pulpit duties were performed by visiting and mainland ministers. The first salaried minister was installed in 1929.
In 1928 the children of the Chapel began a children's fund to obtain a bell and the bell and belfry were mounted atop the Chapel in 1931. The bell is reported to have come from a Church in Conway, an early settlement adjacent to Orlando, Florida. The children were responsible for ringing the bell by hand prior to services and the charming tradition continues today.
Numerous renovations have been necessary as a result of damage from flood water, fire, hurricanes and termites between 1957 and 1966. A Save the Chapel campaign was launched to underwrite precautionary measures to preserve the restructuring made in 1942 when the seating capacity was doubled by adding the East and West transepts.
Marker is on Ocean Avenue, on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
