𝟏𝟗𝟕𝟑 By happy coincidence, ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH in Enterprise was listed on the National Register of Historic Places May 3, 1973, at the beginning of National Preservation Month. Built in 1883, All Saints survives today as one of the oldest and finest of the small Neo-Gothic style Episcopal churches in Central Florida. It has been only slightly altered over the years.

All Saints is one of Central Florida’s oldest original Episcopal missions, established by the Rev. Samuel S. Carpenter, vicar of Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Sanford, to serve several early communities and winter visitors at the Brock House. It was in the parlor of the hotel that All Saints had its inception in 1881. New York wine merchant Frederick DeBary (who built a large winter hunting lodge near Enterprise) donated most of the still beautiful virgin longleaf pine, cypress and curly pine lumber for the building, even though he was not an Episcopalian. The Brock family gave money, as did Bostonian and first church treasurer Frank Storer. Grove owner Lester Clark gave the lakefront land on Clark Street.

Constructed in the form of a modified Latin cross, the simple wood frame building is typical of the Neo-Gothic style that dominated Episcopal church construction in Florida during the 19th century. From a small, raised stoop on the east side, a double entry door opens onto the center aisle of a worship area that seems much larger than it is. The massive, exposed rafters and beams, of dark-stained but never painted native longleaf pine, soar above the worshippers, thanks to the steep pitch of the roof. The altar is located in a small apse at the north end. The church is virtually unchanged except for a small sacristy added at the rear in the 1950s and the front porch and ramp built in 1971.

Vertical wooden board and batten siding, painted white, covers the exterior of the building. There is no steeple or cupola. The arched windows, filled with fixed-pane stained glass, are arranged in pairs.

SOURCES: THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES-NOMINATION FORM and the church website. This recent interior photo, from the Dreggors Collection in the WVHS Archives, shows the beautiful, exposed beams of dark-stained longleaf pine.