Crocker Church

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Crocker Church, also known as St. John’s Chapel, is a historic Baptist church in Sarasota, Florida. It began in 1901 when Peter Crocker and two other trustees received two acres of land for $1 to build a church and a graveyard. The church opened as St. John’s Church and became a Baptist chapel in 1903. After Crocker died in 1911, the church struggled without a resident pastor. In 1927, Bay Haven Baptist Church bought the building and moved it to their property on Bradenton Road. A Spanish mission congregation used the building into the early 1980s. Preservationists moved it again in 1986 to Florida Avenue, and it was officially designated a historic site in 1995. It was used by Throne of Grace Charismatic Episcopal Church until 2004, when it was decommissioned due to poor condition.

A campaign in 2005 saved the building, and in 2006 the Historical Society of Sarasota County moved it to Pioneer Park with more than $160,000 in county funds. It now serves as a gathering place for educational and social events and is rented as a wedding venue. Restoration work continued in 2019–2020, including repairs to wood siding, floor joists, the west wall, the foundation, and six windows; work on the east wall is planned.

Crocker Cemetery, also known as St. John’s Cemetery, lies nearby on Bee Ridge Road near the Tamiami Trail. The land for the cemetery was given in 1901, and the first burial occurred in 1907. Burials continued until 1975, and the graveyard closed to new burials in 1982. Around 1997, a restoration effort began, and a plaque was installed by the Sarasota Historical Commission in 2001.