Northpinellas: 'We have values that emerge from the past'

DUNEDIN -- Eighty-seven-year-old Vivien Skinner Grant remembers just about every story her grandfather, L.B. Skinner, told her about First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin, and how he came to join it.

It was the early 1880s, and he had just graduated from Northwestern Law School when his doctor told him he had such weak eyes, if he continued to practice law he would go blind.

So he moved to Florida in 1883, at age 22, to seek his slice of an orange fortune. He began attending the church, which was next to what is now the Dunedin cemetery.

Once, a hard freeze hit the area and wiped out a nearby grove a minister owned. The pastor -- who was not paid and counted on the oranges for income -- was so angry, the next morning at the Sunday service he "preached a bitter sermon," Grant said.

"He looked out the window at the cemetery and said, "Florida weather is so bad and the soil is so poor that if they ever expect to have a resurrection here, they'll have to fertilize the cemetery,' " Grant said.

The church members laughed. They understood his frustration because "everybody was terribly poor," said Grant, a lifelong member of the church.

The descendants of the old church's founders and original members love to talk about its past.

Now the church's rich history has been recognized by the national Presbyterian Historical Society, which designated it Historical Site No. 431.

"It recognizes the importance of the history of a particular faith community," said Margery Sly, deputy director of the Presbyterian Historical Society, based in Philadelphia. "The Presbyterian church has sought to serve Christ throughout the world, and we try to identify places where the ministry has been active and important."

The society presented the church with a silver-colored plaque, and the church's name will be included in a future publication of the society's book, On Holy Ground.

The church has 400 active members, about the same number of residents as Dunedin had when Grant was born.

As members say, the church is not a building but a living, breathing congregation. In its 133 years, it has had four church buildings and four names.

From 1868 to 1871, it was called Ebenezer Church, and its seven members met in the Viney Hagler log cabin schoolhouse.

But the church members "didn't like the name Ebenezer," Grant said.

After a young man named William Andrews was killed when a tree fell on him while he was riding his horse one stormy day, his father gave the church $200 to change the name to Andrews Memorial Church. The offer was accepted.

So, from 1871 to 1878, it was Andrews Memorial Church, and the members met in a building constructed with iron nails and shipped from Richmond, Va., in a cemetery on County Road 1. Later, the church moved to Scotland Street and Highland Avenue, its current site. In 1926, the Spanish-style sanctuary was constructed.

But the old Andrews Memorial Church chapel remained until it outlived its usefulness. It was almost torn down, but the session agreed to give the building to the Dunedin Historical Society, which arranged to have it cut in half and moved to the entrance of Hammock Park, where its two pieces were reunited.

First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin is led by the Rev. Martin Hager, who has been the pastor there since 1988, and the Rev. Vicki ByRoade, who joined him two years ago.

They are overseeing extensive renovations of the sanctuary, which began this week. The plaque will be hung near a gated courtyard when the reconstruction is complete.

The new construction is making the pastors ponder the church's future and its past.

"It feels important to recognize the history of the church," ByRoade said. "This church was founded by pioneers."

They sacrificed for the church and cultivated it, according to Floriece Horn LaBare, a church member.

The names of the original elders are on grave markers in the Dunedin cemetery.

"There is a certain toughness of this church that remains," Hager said. "People are drawn to this church because we have values that emerge from the past."

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