In 1860, after the era of circuit rider preachers, local Methodists built Spring Hill United Methodist Church when five men, including Simeon Dell and Fernando Underwood, bought five acres on Bellamy Road for $50. The original church was a simple A-frame with two front doors for whites and a back door for enslaved people, and its pews, still in use, were sawed and hewn by enslaved laborers. The 1896 Cedar Keys Hurricane severely damaged the building, and in 1915 the congregation rebuilt it while retaining the organ and pews. In 1956, church elders brought lumber from Bland Methodist Church to build an annex, and in 2001 a second annex was completed and the bell tower restored. Church members later memorialized the dead with stained glass windows. Spring Hill is one of the oldest Methodist churches in Florida, and the Annual Methodist Conference celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2010. At a time when small rural churches are in decline, Spring Hill has flourished, with notable service by pastors including Dr. Franklin Kokomoor from 1956 to 1965, Don Denton from 1979 to 2002, and James Richardson after 2002. Bellamy Road was central to the existence of the Traxler community and Spring Hill Methodist Church. Completed in 1826 as the first federal road in Florida, it followed Florida's becoming a territory in 1821 and its 1823 petition to Congress for a road linking St. Augustine and Pensacola through Tallahassee, the new capital on former Apalachee tribal lands. John Bellamy, from Cowford, won the bid to build the section from Picolata on the St. Johns River to Tallahassee for $13,500 and used enslaved laborers to construct the 16-foot-wide road. Trees were cut close to the ground, and timber was used to bolster swampy stretches. Workers faced mosquitoes, swamp fevers, flies, and Indian attacks, and they labored with cross-cut saws, grubbing hoes, chains, and mules. The road followed Indian trails, crossed the Santa Fe River at the natural bridge, and passed by the settlement of Dells, now Newnansville. During the 1974 celebration of Tallahassee's 150th anniversary as Florida's capital, Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner and others reenacted the trip to the capital on horseback, and people from the community greeted the riders with a barbecue lunch at Spring Hill Church.