Our History

St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church stands majestically on the corner of Pine Street and Palm Avenue in historic downtown Titusville, where it has served its congregation since the first service was held May 31, 1888. However, the building of the church was not the beginning of the story of the parish. It was the culmination of years of love, dedication and hard work of a congregation that grew out a service first conducted in the wilderness in 1869 by a resilient missionary priest.

In April 1869, The Right Reverend J. Freeman Young, Second Bishop of the Diocese of Florida, in his effort to expand the Episcopal Church across the Florida frontier, commissioned the Reverend Edward McClure as a missionary to “Indian River”. The Rev. McClure had specific instructions to travel along the St. John’s from Jacksonville to Enterprise.  From Enterprise he was to travel east to Salt Lake and then onward to Sand Point (now Titusville) on the Indian River. McClure was to make contact with one the first Episcopalians in Sand Point, Colonel Henry Titus, to discuss establishing a church.  This arduous journey required the missionary, once arriving by boat at Salt Lake to then walk eight miles through untamed wilderness to Sand Point in sultry, 84 degree heat carrying a valise full of clothes and Prayer Books.  Upon reaching the Titus home in Sandpoint, Rev. McClure was “kindly received and hospitably entertained”. Col. Titus may not have been overly enthusiastic about the concept establishing a church because no service was held and Rev. McClure left the next morning to return to LaGrange, where he had stopped the day before and been asked to conduct a service.  And so, on April 20, 1869 at 11:00 am, the seeds were sown when he conducted the first Episcopal service ever held in the neighborhood – Morning Prayer

Bishop Young, along with Reverend Francis Rader Holeman, "missionary on St. John's River,” made their own journey to Titusville in December 1871. The clerics received a cordial welcome from Colonel Henry Titus, and the next day, Sunday, an Episcopal service was held in the dining room of the hotel for a congregation of nearly fifty.  The bishop wanted to establish regular services for the growing community, and by 1874 regular services were held by Lay Readers and traveling priests, priests wintering in the area, and priests assigned but shared with other towns.   Services were held in varying locations:  Titus House, Wager Hall, the Court House, LaGrange community church and private homes.   By 1886, the one Episcopal family had increased to several, including the Brady, Parkinson, Pritchard, Robbins, Stewart, Wager and Wilson families.   These families began to work earnestly toward the erection of the church building, holding assorted fundraisers.   That same year they obtained land via Mary E. Titus, widow of Col. Henry Titus.  In 1887, there building fund was bolstered to two thousand dollars when they received a significant donation from Lucy Boardman, winter visitor to Sanford.   Preliminary work began with land being cleared and architectural plans drawn following the designs of Richard Upjohn, an eminent New York architect famous for his Gothic Revival churches.  The church was to be of long leaf pine lumber, board and batten in a neo-gothic modified cruciform design with a highly pitched shingle roof and a spire-like bell steeple, a style which was spread throughout Central Florida during the late 1800s by the Right Reverend Edwin G. Weed, third Bishop of Florida.  With the preliminary work completed, work commenced on the building April 16, 1888, the contract having been awarded to Mr. L.R. Decker in February 1888.

May 31, 1888 the congregation had their own church building, St. John’s Episcopal Church, and the first service was held that evening.  Though the building was completed, it was still an unpainted, bare-bone structure. The windows were covered with tarpaulins, and orange boxes were used for seats. The lighting of the church was oil lamps placed in sconces beside each window.  About September of 1888, the congregation received word that the, mother of Capt. James Pritchard was going to donate a St. Gabriel window in memory of her husband, Col. John Pritchard and 2 additional windows.  With that, the congregation elected to change the name of the church to St. Gabriel’s and the windows were designated to be installed over the altar. It would take a decade for all windows to be stained glass, and the women of the church continued to raise money for windows and furnishings.  Although a mission with no permanent vicar, the church grew and flourished.

In 1916, the Reverend A. D. Caslor, missionary priest, discovered St. Gabriel’s had never been consecrated.  Subsequently a Service of Consecration was held on Sunday, October 28, 1917, conducted by the Right Reverend Cameron Mann, the Bishop of South Florida, and the Vicar, Reverend Caslor.  St. Gabriel’s continued to thrive, and in the late 1950s, obtained parish status while under the rectorship of the Reverend William H. Folwell.   The space industry brought tremendous growth to Titusville and in 1962, under Reverend W. Sumner Ferguson, the church had to be expanded to accommodate the larger congregation.  The beauty and integrity of the Carpenter Gothic Church was retained by extending the sides and west end of the church.  Great care was taken to match the age-old pine and pews and to properly place the magnificent windows.  The great effort taken to preserve the architectural integrity of the Florida Carpenter Gothic Church was rewarded in 1972 when St. Gabriel’s was added to the National Register of Historic places.   Today, the church stands a one of less than 40 remaining Carpenter Gothic Churches in Florida.