About

In January 1915, the Baptist governing board, known as the Seminole Association, approved the establishment of two new missions, one at Cameron City and a Baptist Church at Monroe. This association was in fact, the First Baptist Church of Sanford, which had the authority to approve and provide limited funding for any new Baptist churches in the county.

 

The Mann family was instrumental in organizing the new church and even provided the building lot. To supplement the limited funding, local Baptist ladies prepared and sold box lunches to farm workers and families in Monroe. The sale of one box lunch raised enough money to buy one board for the church. The actual construction of the church was a community effort involving members of the Mann, Swaggerty, Oglesby and other families. By best estimates, the church was completed in the summer of 1921. Next door to the church was a pastoral house, which in later years was used for Sunday School classes. The building is still in its original location and is still being used for the same functions as when it opened its doors almost 100 years ago.

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When the Baptists moved into their new church, the old meeting house church became the First Methodist Church of Monroe. In a small ceremony, a bell from Sanford's original 1883 First Methodist Church was presented to the Monroe Methodist Church. A new entrance with a belfry was added to the front of the church building. Research estimates that Monroe's Methodist Church remained active until about 1929, when the building was moved to the corner of Laurel Avenue and 4th Street in Sanford.