Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church

ABOVE: The first church structure of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church was according to church history, “a bush harbor or bush arbor, so called because it was an open area enclosed by loose bushes, vines and branches bent over to form the top giving it a canopy appearance. And it was a safe place where we could go and praise and worship God…” Read more in the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church Presentation to the Historic Preservation Board.

This recreation of the historic bush arbor located next to the majestic Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church, recalls the time in Orlando’s history when black members of our community were forbidden from building a church and so worshiped in a garden structure.

ABOVE: This artistic rendering shows the early church and is on display in the vestibule of the majestic Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church in downtown Orlando at 535 W. Washington Street.

Mt. Zion would later achieve “the most aggressive project of any Black Church in Central Florida’s History”, One Hundred and One Years, the building of a magnificent brick church valued at $250,000 in 1955.

Today Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church stands as a testament of faith and perseverance to the early church and is one of downtown Orlando’s most distinguished church buildings. 

ABOVE: Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church under construction at 535 West Washington Street in downtown Orlando, circa early 1960s. Pictured from left to right are:  Rufus Isler – Deacon, James Bates – Chairman of the Deacon Board, Georgia Woodley – Church Secretary, Willie Gadson – Deacon, Mrs. Margaret Staggers – Pastor’s wife, Mr. Townsend – Contractor, Reverend Nathaniel G. Staggers – Pastor, Booker T. Helms – Chairman of the Trustee Board (Holmes Concrete and Paving Company).

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church: One Hundred and One Years, 1880-1981. VIEW Booklet.

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church: One Hundred and Four Years, 1880-1984.  VIEW Booklet

Read the October 2000 article about Mt. Zion entitled “The Rock of Parramore”.

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church 133rd Church Anniversary Celebration, Sunday April 28, 2013. View commemorative booklet of church history and letters from Governor Rick Scott, Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Sheriff Jerry Demings, Mayor Buddy Dyer, Chief of Police Paul Rooney, and Commissioner Daisy Lynum.  Part I   –   Part II

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church Commemorates L. Claudia Allen Day, 2013.  VIEW Booklet.

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church Commemorates L. Claudia Allen Day, 2015. VIEW Booklet

Above: Deaconess Lillian Lancaster in the sanctuary of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church in downtown Orlando, August 16, 2012.

Listen as Deaconess Lillian Lancaster shares her memories of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church. 

LISTEN Part I (18:19)

LISTEN Part II (19:06)

LISTEN Part III (6:32)

LISTEN Part IV (9:03)

LISTEN Part V (3:41)

LISTEN Part VI (10:24)

LISTEN Part VII (11:26)

ABOVE: Pamela Woodley at Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church in downtown Orlando, December 5, 2012. 

Ms. Woodley worked with her aunt, Dorothy West, in the church floral ministry in the early 1990’s. They had a centerpiece for the church created by a local florist, angels were selected and garland. Deaconess Bates served over the floral ministry. The artful creations they selected to enhance the worship environment are still in use today.

Listen as Pamela Woodley shares her memories of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church. 

LISTEN Part I (14:56)

LISTEN Part II (14:59)

LISTEN Part III (11:16)

LISTEN Part IV (7:50)

ABOVE: The Georgia Nell Woodley Orlando Remembered display is at the Dr. J. B. Callahan Neighborhood Center. The display was dedicated on February 19, 2014.

The display team creators are pictured from left to right: Anita Lam – Museum Designer, Pamela Woodley – daughter of Georgia Woodley, Mae Davis – Callahan Center Recreational Specialist, Jane Tracy – Orange County Library System Librarian, Ann Brown – President of the Callahan Neighborhood Association, and Texann Ivy Buck.

The Orlando Remembered exhibit is on permanent display at the Dr. J. B. Callahan Neighborhood Center located at 101 North Parramore Avenue in downtown Orlando and is open to the public.

“A Celebration of Life for the Homegoing of Georgia Nell Woodley.” Community leader Georgia Nell Woodley’s homegoing service was held on Saturday, December 3, 2005 at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church where she served as administrative assistant for 45 years. Mt. Zion Pastor Reverend Errol G. Thompson officiated. 

It was through her church’s community involvement and working as church secretary that Georgia Woodley became a community activist.

Working with mentor, Sister Teresa McElwee, a Catholic nun, who started the Apopka Family Learning Center, Georgia Woodley learned about applying for penny grants to get paved roads in the Callahan neighborhood, ways to work for neighborhood improvements, and how to form a neighborhood association. Georgia Woodley served as president of the Callahan Neighborhood Association for 25 years.

Georgia Woodley worked diligently on community development and neighborhood preservation in the Callahan area and specifically concerning the creation of the Callahan Neighborhood Center.

ABOVE: Florida native Altamese Pritchett came to Orlando in 1935 from the country, Summerfield, where her grandfather was a minister. Her grandmother, Maggie Baker Hemingway, was president of the district convention. When the family moved to Orlando they joined New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Winter Park which was in the same convention so her grandmother could continue as president. She says she can still picture her grandmother back in the Amen Corner with the Deaconesses in the little country church in Summerfield, Florida.

In the 1930’s the family found a house at 813 W. Livingston Street and joined Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church. They would walk from their Livingston Street home to the church Sunday mornings for Sunday school, 11 o’clock service, home for Sunday dinner, and then back to church at night for the evening service.

She remembers going to Red Circle for Girls where you learned church etiquette, Bible verses, and how to act in church. BTU, Baptist Training Union, Junior Church, and church choir were activities she enjoyed as a youth and then helped lead the groups as an adult.

Throughout her life at Mt. Zion she has served in the choir. Starting as a “little fella” in the choir, then the young adult choir, and the senior choir. Ms. Pritchett also sang in the Jones High School Choir and went from Jones High School to Florida Memorial College in St. Augustine on a singing scholarship.

She says, “My church has been my life, it’s been my heart, it’s been the thing that keeps me going.”

Altamese Prichett is one of the oldest lifetime members of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church and can remember the church leaders, buildings, and families including the churches that have grown out of Mt. Zion, the mother church. She remembers Rev. R. L. Jones who was there when she joined in the 1930’s up to the current pastor, her relative, Reverend Spooney. She details the vision and ethics of the great Reverend Staggers, her disdain for Rev. Thompson, and the community outgrowth of new leaders such as Rev. Sims who left Mt. Zion to start Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church. Regarding the “discovery of one of our own”, current pastor, Dr. Reverend Robert M. Spooney, she says, “If anyone had ever told me Mikey was going to be a preacher that was the farthest thing from my mind. But he’s a good one.”

Ms. Pritchett says Reverend Spooney’s Wednesday night Bible study is “the bomb as the children say.” She thinks everybody that belongs to the church should go, but if you can’t, you can call the church office and get the phone version. She also enjoys the Senior Citizen Day activities at the church and the wonderful meals prepared by church member Chef Jones.

She is still able to climb the steps up to Mt. Zion with a little help and goes every Sunday. She says, “I know everything changes, but I feel the church should not. I love my church with the big white pillars….”

We invite you to hear church matriarch Altamese Pritchett speak her mind on the history of faith at Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church in this oral history interview at her home on October 31, 2012.

LISTEN Part I (14:58)

LISTEN Part II (10:57)

LISTEN Part III (15:00) 

LISTEN Part IV (15:15)

LISTEN Part V (11:24)

LISTEN Part VI (7:11)

ABOVE: Photo of Ernestine Dallas who served as church organist and pianist for Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church in downtown Orlando for over 40 years. Her daughter, Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church member, Adelma Wallace, provided the photo to Orlando Memory.

Adelma Wallace, Orange County educator and lifetime member of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church in downtown Orlando. We invite you to listen to her church oral history interview and learn more about historic Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church.

LISTEN Part I (14:57)

LISTEN Part II (9:48)

Beloved librarian Elinor Williams passed away 19 November 2005.

She was an active member of Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Institutional Church and known for her faithful work as a Sunday School teacher.