Mount Bethel Institutional Baptist Church
700 South Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Mount Bethel Baptist Institutional Church is the oldest Black church in Daytona Beach, erected at the corner of Freemont Avenue and Church Street in 1885, in a Black neighborhood of Old Daytona known as Silver Hill. The growing church moved twice within the Black neighborhoods of Old Daytona to accommodate the burgeoning congregation. First on the corner of South Street and Church Street in Waycross. Then, in 1921, it moved to its present location in Newtown, at the corner of South Street and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
The current structure is an elaborate, Late Gothic Revival style church featuring a steeply pitched, front-facing gable roof and two corner towers. The building is constructed of rough faced concrete block, which adds to its Gothic appearance as does the side and corner wall buttresses and lancet windows.
Mount Bethel traditionally has had one of Daytona Beach’s largest Black congregations. Its primary founder and first pastor, Joseph Brook Hankerson, was elected Daytona Beach’s first Black councilman in 1898. The renowned theologian and native Daytonian Howard Thurman was a member of Mount Bethel, as was Yvonne Scarlett-Golden, the first Black mayor of Daytona Beach. Several other Baptist churches grew from Mount Bethel’s congregation, including Mount Zion and Shiloh Missionary.
Timeline
1885 - Church Erected in Silver Hill
1898 - Joseph Brook Hankerson 1st Black City Councilman
1900 - Church moves to Newtown
1921 - Church moves to current site