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17. First Presbyterian Church (St. Johns Episcopal)334 S. Highway 71
The St. Johns Episcopal Mission was established in 1893 and its members met in the Methodist Church until this church was constructed in 1903. Dr. John Keys, a prominent citizen of Wewahitchka, had persuaded Francis Rummel, an immigrant carpenter from Bohemia living in Augusta. Georgia, to move to Wewahitchka and build the church. The church is constructed of board and batten cypress in Carpenter Gothic Revival style, a style common to wood-framed Episcopal churches at the end of the 19th century. The interior walls are tongue and groove pine. St. Johns is one of the few buildings of its kind that has remained intact without any serious structural alterations. Most early wood-framed churches have been demolished and replaced with modern structures. On November 26, 1903, the church was consecrated by Bishop Edwin G. Weed, who had traveled from Jacksonville by sloop around the southern tip of Florida and then by steamboat up the Apalachicola River to Wewahitchka. In 1943 the church was sold to the Presbyterian Church for $10. The structure remained essentially the same with minor modifications and updating—stained glass windows, central heat and air conditioning, and carpeting. The two congregations shared the building until the Episcopals built a new church north of town in 2005. The church has survived three catastrophes: a lightening strike in the 1930s, a fire accidentally set by a homeless man in the 1940s, and a car accident in the 1960s. In 1998, a new steeple with a cross was added to the bell tower to replace the one lost many years ago during a hurricane.
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