Union Congregational Church (Avon Park, Florida)

Last updated
Union Church
Avon Park Evan-Cong Church01.jpg
General information
Town or city 106 N. Butler Ave., Avon Park, Florida
Country United States
Coordinates 27°35′51″N81°30′11″W / 27.59746°N 81.50302°W / 27.59746; -81.50302
Construction started 1890
Completed 1892
Client Union Church
Technical details
Structural system wooden
Design and construction
Architect unknown
Engineer Builder: unknown
Avon Park Evan-Cong Church sign01.jpg

The Union Church, also known as Union Congregational Church, is a historic United Church of Christ church building located at 106 North Butler Avenue in Avon Park, Florida.

United Church of Christ Protestant Christian denomination

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical confessional roots in the Congregational, Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,956 churches and 853,778 members. The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Pilgrims and Puritans. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Reformed group in the country, the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC. These two denominations, which were themselves the result of earlier unions, had their roots in Congregational, Lutheran, Evangelical, and Reformed denominations. At the end of 2014, the UCC's 5,116 congregations claimed 979,239 members, primarily in the U.S. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 0.4 percent, or 1 million adult adherents, of the U.S. population self-identify with the United Church of Christ.

Avon Park, Florida City in Florida, United States

Avon Park is a city in Highlands County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census the population was 8,836, and in 2015 the estimated population was 10,086. It is the oldest city in Highlands County, and was named after Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Construction began in 1890 and the first services were held in the not-quite-completed structure on September 11, 1892. The church was built on land donated by the founder of Avon Park, Oliver Martin Crosby, and his wife. Later the original crenellated bell tower was replaced with a steeple. In 1989, the church was listed as in A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, published by the University of Florida Press." [1]

Bell tower a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells

A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell towers, often part of a municipal building, an educational establishment, or a tower built specifically to house a carillon. Church bell towers often incorporate clocks, and secular towers usually do, as a public service.

Union Church is an active congregation. The church property extends through to Jim Rodgers Avenue. Bill Breylinger has been the senior pastor for over 25 years.

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References

  1. A Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, 1989, Gainesville: University of Florida Press, p. 113, ISBN   0-8130-0941-3

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