500 block N Palafox, west side
Fort George was a fort built by the British atop Gage hill and was the largest of the trio of forts built upon the hill. The fort belonged to the British until the siege of Pensacola by the Spanish. In 1781 under Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish seized the fort and renamed it, Fort San Miguel. However, the Spanish did not occupy the fort, and it began to deteriorate. During the Civil War, the Union placed a slight batter called Fort McClellan on the site. Fort George is a site on the Colonial Archeological Trail.
First Baptist Church
First Baptist Church of Pensacola was founded in 1847, near what is now Seville Square by a small group of local citizens, along with Preacher Alexander Travis from Alabama and Joseph Mitchell. They built the first church building in 1852 at 224 E Government Street. In 1894, the congregation moved to the current site on N Palafox and built a brick and stone Gothic Revival building. The current building you see today was built in 1956.
Pictured | First Baptist Church under construction, 1887, UWF Historic Trust
Located at 500 N Guillemard Street, is Allen Chapel AME Church.
Rev. Henry Call was an enslaved person from Jackson County, Florida. Call was forced to follow his enslaver, Mr. White, who joined the Confederate Army during the civil war. During the battle of Lookout Mountain, Mr. White was killed. Call went to recover his body when he came across an African American man who was also slain in battle. The man held a pamphlet in his pocket, which Call took and read. What was contained in the pamphlet was a Christian Recorder for the AME church. Call was inspired by what he read that day and set about founding the first AME church in his home state of Florida. Though Henry Call was not ordained yet by the AME church, he founded the First AME Church in the state located in Cottondale, Florida, according to his son. However, due to not being ordained, Call did not have the official authority to create organizations legally. This was the case until he wrote the bishop, and during an AME conference in South Carolina, he was ordained. Then in 1866, after officially finding out about the Emancipation, the newly ordained Rev. Call legally organized the Allen Chapel AME Church in Pensacola. Before a church was constructed, meetings for the Allen Chapel congregations occurred in different homes throughout the city. The Church currently pictured was constructed years later when Dr. Rev. Edwards paid off the debts of the Church and prepared to build the brick church. The building was designed and constructed by S. S. Moses, a member of the Church. The Church's remodeling was overseen by Rev. Fisher, the first person who converted to the Allen Chapel and lived long enough to become the pastor.
To learn more about the African American Heritage Trail, click here.
