The history of the Episcopal Church in Mount Dora actually began over six
decades before the founding of St. Edward the Confessor (now known as St. Edward's Episcopal Church). In 1893, the
Rt. Rev. William Crane Gray, newly consecrated bishop of the Missionary Jurisdiction of Southern Florida, made his first journey
around the territory which General Convention had separated the previous fall from the expanding Diocese of Florida.
He visited Mount Dora in the spring and selected a lot suitable for a church building. However, during his episcopate
he held services and preached either in the Methodist or Congregational churches, and the Episcopal presence remained an unnamed
mission station until in 1914, when the Rt. Rev. Cameron Mann became bishop, it was listed in the Convocation Journal as an
unorganized mission named St. Luke.
Several
years later, in 1922, it appears as an organized mission named Trinity. It became dormant sometime during 1926 as a
result of the collapse of the real estate boom. It would be another three decades before the Episcopal Church established
itself in Mount Dora with the founding of St. Edward the Confessor. In the meantime, Episcopalians journeyed the few
miles over to Eustis and attended St. Thomas Church there.
1956 St. Edward's was organized as a mission
on February 5th, following a service presided over by Canon William Hargrave, Executive Secretary of the Diocese of South
Florida and later first Bishop of Southwest Florida. The service was held in the home of the late Maria Hartridge and was
attended by 35 persons. Until the end of April, services continued in the Masonic hall. The congregation purchased a two-acre estate, formerly the Bardwell home. Convenient to
the center of the city, it came complete with a house, two orange groves, and a swimming pool.
At the annual convention of the Diocese of South Florida on May 22nd,
St. Edward's was accepted as an organized mission.
The house was remodeled with the ground floor serving as the church and Sunday school,
and the second floor as living quarters for the resident vicar. The first resident vicar arrived October 1st, and by
the end of the year, seating capacity (85 people) was stretched to the limit.
1958 September 23rd witnessed groundbreaking for a new church building.
The architect was A. Wynn Howell of Lakeland, Florida.
Mr. Howell planned for St. Edward's to be a living demonstration of the Biblical
"Rock of Our Salvation." He accomplished this through the use of native Florida fieldstone in building the
nine buttresses which support the roof. Carrying through the theme of the Rock of Salvation is the altar. All
the rock in the altar is the same stone used in the exterior construction with one exception--a piece of marble from the reredos
of the high altar at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England.
Construction
on the new church structure was completed on February 1959. The service of the Laying of the Cornerstone took place
on March 11, 1959.
1959
Easter Day, March 29th, marked the first services held in the new church structure which had been constructed on the property.
