WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Reverend Gerald Kisner looking back at the impact Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church at the corner of 8th street and Division Avenue has in the West Palm Beach community. The church is in its 132nd year of existence. We are actually two years older than the city of West Palm Beach . So our church has had a long history and a long connection with education and we’ve always fostered and always pushed it. And a number of our young people who have gone on to graduate school have done great things because they got there I believe their incentive and motivation from here at the church.”
Education taking place in the church dating back to 1894. The superintendent of schools I understand at that time designated our church as a facility and we had black children come in here for classes.”
Now the decades old building is in need of some repair. “Anything that old begins to have some issues. Our biggest issues is with the bricks because there has been water seepage coming through. We’ve paid over 80-thousand dollars, so far to help that, but we have a long way to go.”
Reverend Kisner knows miracles do happen-- as they have in the past. “A tribute to the tenacity of those old ancestors because they used their own funds to get the bricks. And if you notice the different coloring, they ran out of the bricks that they could buy. So people started bringing individual bricks some from Alabama some from other places to actually finish it.”
Aiming for the building to remain standing strong for another 100 years. “This has been a beacon with a house on the hill serving Christ. We’ve done a lot of things with social issues."
For more information about the church:
https://tabernaclewpb.org/help-preserve-our-historic-church-building/
