Beulah African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first house of worship in Wabasso to be affiliated with a national congregation. Its founders settled there in the early 1900s as laborers in agriculture, lumber, turpentine, and construction, the industries that formed the county’s early economy. Many congregants soon became successful entrepreneurs and property owners, including John Knowles, Sam Caswell, and Thomas Jackson, the three men who donated the land as a site for the church and school. The original sanctuary was built in 1916 and also served as a classroom until the congregation’s commitment to education drew the attention of the Julius Rosenwald Fund. The fund provided seed money for Douglas Elementary School, built on the same donated tract in 1927. The teaching, spiritual inspiration, and fellowship fostered by these parishioners helped them defy racial barriers, and members became civic leaders, medical professionals, NASA engineers, business owners, educators, citrus growers, and decorated military veterans. The church was renamed Allen Chapel AME Church in 1943, and the sanctuary dedicated in 1957 was the third built on that site.