The 1895 Church of StuArt

May is Historic Preservation Month! We have launched the restoration project of our historical building and, hopefully, will be able to put the steeple back as well! The building lost its steeple between 1915 and 1920, according to the records on The Florida Master Site File (FMSF), the State of Florida’s official inventory of historical, cultural resources. Our FMSF state-assigned ID is MT00346, record number 281.

We had our first three-day event Art & Relics Sale on May 13th, 14th and 15th! Rev. Jeff Bennett, First United Methodist Church Stuart, and Rev. Dr. Patsy McGregor, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, gave their prayers and blessings for the steeple restoration project!

We thank our special guests: Vice Mayor Troy McDonald for joining us at the event and his encouraging words on our local history preservation, and Alice L. Luckhardt, our local historian and writer, for her historic preservation work: research, amazing articles, books, and historic talks, and sharing with us the history of the first community church!

And what a wonderful and unexpected surprise we received from Jo Marie Paradise and Judy Clark, granddaughters of the Taylors (John E. Taylor and Sarah Josephine Kitching)! They presented us with a brick from the original foundation of the historic church! Thank you very much, Jo Marie and Judy! Please follow the link to the article on the first Methodist Church written by Mrs. John E. Taylor (Sarah Josephine Kitching) https://treasurecoastbiz.com/history-of-the-first-united-methodist-church-in-stuart-florida

Please visit us on Facebook – The 1895 Church of Stuart, and check out our photo albums. Thank you all the attendees for the support and contributions!

The 1895 Church of StuArt is a historical building of the first community church, also known as the Pioneer Church (the oldest church building in Martin County), built in Stuart in 1895! Your donations help us maintain, restore, and preserve the building, and also continue our research and share historical information and articles. We greatly appreciate your support! The donations are not tax deductible.

Our BIG THANK YOU to our local artists for contributing their amazing art pieces to the steeple restoration fundraiser! Janis Clary “O”, Danuta Rothschild, and Dinija Berkien – D&J Art Studio.

Torenzo Gann!

Mallo Bisset, Red Barn Furniture & Art Gallery: the fun Cat Pillows are reproductions of Mallo’s original paintings! Mia Lindberg, Clay Habit Studio: she is a fine art jeweler as well, her Spiny Oyster in 925 silver is gorgeous and comes with the custom crafted gift box!!

Thank you to our friend Jon Kirchhoff, a professional woodworker who designs and builds heirloom furniture, for the custom made shadowbox frame!

Thank you to our friend Carl Hauthaway who donated countless hours of his time working with Robert W. Hamilton, Jr. on the almost 127 y.o. church. Recently, he helped us to clean, polish, and clear-coat the antique railroad spikes. In 2019, Robert unearthed these spikes unexpectedly when he was digging the fence post holes at The 1895 Church of Stuart. The railroad spikes are available for purchase, the proceeds benefit the steeple restoration.

From the bottom of our hearts we are grateful to our sponsors for their contribution to our events at The 1895 Church of StuArt to benefit the steeple restoration!

We are looking forward to seeing you at our next upcoming events!

Local History and Fine Art For Sale