St. Mark’s Episcopal Church

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. . On June 2, 1878, the Right Reverend John Freeman Young, Bishop of Florida, and Dr. William H. Carter of Holy Cross Church of Sanford, Florida, held the first meeting of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at a nearby Rockledge residence. The mission was originally named St. Michael’s in honor of St. Michael the Archangel. In 1884, Mrs. Lucy Boardman, a winter resident of Sanford and frequent visitor to Cocoa and Melbourne, made a donation to Bishop Young for the construction of Episcopal churches in the Indian River area. Mrs. Sarah O. Delannoy donated land for the church. The board and batten Carpenter Gothic church was designed by Gabriel Gingras in 1886. William Booth and William Hindle, both early settlers in Cocoa, designed and installed the church’s woodwork. While still under construction on Christmas Eve, 1886, the church was the site of the first Christmas tree ever seen in Cocoa Village. In 1888, “Michael,” the church’s tower bell, was cast in New York. In 1890, the church name was changed to St. Mark’s in recognition of support from St. Mark’s Church in West Orange, New Jersey. Despite later remodeling and additions, most of the church’s original interior woodwork and stained glass windows remain.