This Old House of God: St. Andrews By-The-Sea stands test of time

In its early days, Destin was isolated. Water was on three sides, and only two backroads led east toward Panama City.

The people who lived here were a hardy lot and most of them made their living from the sea. Their faith and their need to worship was strong.

In the 1920s, Episcopal services were held in private homes, businesses and public buildings when clergymen from Panama City would come to celebrate communion.

But it was not a fisherman who was instrumental in starting the first church in Destin.

It was a retired English lay reader in the church of England named Clement Taylor who faithfully taught the Bible and the Anglican tradition to the people of Destin. Having moved first to Santa Rosa Beach in 1911, he moved permanently to Destin in 1923.

As a layreader, vestryman, teacher and inspiring leader, he served in a devoted and consecrated manner and was largely responsible for the church thriving in this area.

“He could be considered the father of the Episcopal church here in Destin,” Rev. David Powell, rector of St. Andrews By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, told The Log. “As a lay reader, his work grew into the founding of the parish we know today.”

Once here in 1923, Taylor and others, chiefly Mrs. Isabelle Maltezo and her family, decided to hold their first service in the barrel shed of Willy Marler’s fish house.

Kneeling for their prayers in the salt spilled from packing the fish, St. Andrews By-the-Sea Episcopal Church got a fisherman’s start.

In 1924 during the days before denominations, the little group began using the Community Church/School. The Rt. Rev. Frank A. Juhan from St. Simon’s Church in Fort Walton Beach made his first Episcopal visit to the area in 1926 over a wagon road through sparsely settled pine woods for services in the schoolhouse.

When the schoolhouse burned down, services were moved to the house of a Greek shipbuilder named John G. Maltezo, who, in time, donated the land upon which St. Andrew’s By-the-Sea was built. The church met there until 1937.

Although the church had no building, St. Andrews By-the-Sea Episcopal Church was officially recognized as an organized mission by the Diocese of Florida in 1928.

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John Maltezo donated property north of the road through Destin and in the late 1920s, lumber, used in the former St. Catherine Mission Church in Pensacola, was brought by boat and unloaded on the beach.

Maltezo and The Rev. Randolph Blackford carried it up to the place where they hoped to build the church.

The Great Depression hit in 1929, and they had to give up the dream for a church, but only for a time. However, Maltezo died in 1932 before the church was completed.

That first small wooden church, which seated about 50 people, was completed in 1937 and was used for services until the new concrete block building was completed in 1953.
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From 1950-53, the congregation was led by the Rev. Tony Diffenbaugh. It was during this time that the 26-year-old congregation built its new church to replace the smaller wooden building as the First Episcopal Church of Destin. The old church was to be used as a parish home.

The new concrete block church with steeple, only partially completed by the first service in March 1953, had an estimated value of $30,000.
A longtime landmark for area fishermen, the steeple of St. Andrew’s was once the highest fixture along the harbor.

The church, which seated 250, was designed by Robert Frazier of Destin and Theodore Smith of Fort Walton Beach. Senior warden at the new church was Ben F. Marler Sr. and junior warden was Garfield Taylor, son of Clement Taylor. Members of the vestry included Mrs. Leonard E.

Destin, Robert T. Frazier, Mrs. Isabelle Maltezo, Mrs. Ben Marler, David H. Marler, Clement Taylor, Pete L. Vasso, Edgar O. Waltars, Cecil L. Woodward and Herbert Woodward.
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In 1960, the parish hall, church school, nursery and offices were built around the first church site and connected to the building built in 1953.

The area of the first little wooden church was is now a garden and used in part to “inter the ashes of our animal companions,” Powell said. “We also occasionally have outdoor services in the garden, such as The Blessing of the Animals at a time near the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4.”

Today St. Andrews By-the-Sea Episcopal Church has continued to grow into the vibrant, alive church envisioned by those early fishing families and parishioners — Destin pioneers such as Clement Taylor and Isabelle Maltezo.