The Jensen Beach Christian Church, originally known as the Jensen Union Church, is an historic church building located at 1890 N.E. Church Street in

Jensen Beach Jensen Beach is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Martin County, Florida, United States. The population was 12,652 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Port St. Lucie, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Histo ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Built in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style between 1910 and 1912 of site manufactured concrete blocks cast to look like stones, it was designed to serve the needs of local

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

s. Its pulpit and pews, which are still in use, were donated by

Henry Morrison Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder ...

, the developer of the

Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...

, whose mainline still runs through Jensen Beach less than a block west of the church. On June 7, 2010, the Jensen Beach Christian Church was added to the Martin County Historic Register by the Martin County Historic Preservation Board.

History

In 1894 an interdenominational Protestant Sunday School was organized in what was then called ''Jensen''. It met first at the Al Fresco Hotel, then the town hall and later the school. By 1898, the

Episcopalians Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

had left to form All Saints Episcopal Church at Waveland. In 1905 the Florida Baptist Board of Missions sent the Rev. E.E. Woodson to preach on the fourth Sunday of each month. Until he left for New Smyrna, the Rev. Harry H. Jones of the Union Congregational Church in nearby Eden also came down to preach on some Sundays and Wednesdays. In 1906 local pioneers, Ranson Ren Tilton and Gertrude Tilton, his wife, offered the land on Church Street for a church to be built. A ''Ladies Aid Society'' was formed in 1906 to raise money for the building. In 1910 the Tiltons deeded the property to the Ladies Aid Society and construction began. The Jensen Union Church opened in 1912. The Baptists later left to form First Baptist Church. The Rev. Mr. Jones returned in the 1920s to serve as pastor of the church until 1950. In 1932 the congregation became the Jensen Community Church, but it was not until 1938 that the land was deeded to it by the Ladies Aid Society. In 1962 the congregation by then known as the Jensen Beach Community Church moved to a new building on Skyline Drive. The Church Street building was sold to a new congregation, the Jensen Beach Christian Church. The exterior concrete blocks were originally not painted but were later painted white. In 1931 an addition was added on the rear of the church and in 1952 a kitchen-Sunday School wing was added to the east of that addition. In 2009 the church exterior was painted a bright yellow with gray trim, but was repainted white in May 2009 in order to gain recognition by the local historic preservation board. The gray trim has been retained.Hutchinson, Janet, compiler, and Paige, Emeline K., editor, ''History of Martin County'', 1975, pp. 263-267, reprinted 1987, Port Salerno, Florida: Florida Classics Library

References

{{Reflist Churches in Martin County, Florida Episcopal church buildings in Florida Baptist churches in Florida Martin County Local Historic Register Gothic Revival church buildings in Florida Churches completed in 1912 Jensen Beach, Florida 1912 establishments in Florida