Church Square South

Church Square South. . The southern area of the Church Square includes Pitts Chapel United Methodist Church constructed in 1865 after an arsonist burned the log cabin church along Jordan Creek. Fleming McCullah donated the land for the church that also housed the Freedmen's Bureau School and later the public school for black children. Edgar Pitts was the pastor of the chapel three times after the Civil War and when he died in 1889, the church was renamed Pitts Chapel. In 1911, the congregation built a new church structure on the corner of Benton and Pine (now Tampa). , Gibson Chapel, located on the corner of Tampa and Washington Ave., was formed as the First Negro Cumberland Presbyterian Church in 1865 by a freed slave named Reverend Peter Lair (later spelled Lear) with aid from a white minister. The frame building was constructed on the south side of the Jordan River (Jordan Creek) at the foot of Washington Avenue. , In 1891, a new brick church was built on the corner of Washington Avenue and Pine (now 536 E. Tampa Street). The church was renamed Gibson Chapel after the death of Reverend H. A. Gibson, who worked tirelessly to get the new structure erected. After the lynching of three innocent black men on the public square on Easter weekend, 1906, many families sought shelter in the chapel's basement while male church members guarded the building. The building was heavily damaged by fires in 1915 and 1935, but was rebuilt both times. After World War II, five members of the choir formed the singing group the Philharmonics. The group went on to regional and national fame.