Plymouth Congregational Church — Attraction in Miami

I love a historic church and this just might be my favorite one in Miami. The Plymouth Congregational Church is a historic church located at 3429 Devon Road in the Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida. It is associated with the early development of Coconut Grove. Organized in 1897 as the Union Congregational Church.by Rev. James Bolton, the church was initially a small chapel sat on Grand Avenue and Virginia Street on land donated by Coconut Grove pioneer Commodore Ralph Munro. Solomon G. Merrick, father of George Merrick became pastor in 1901 and was the first Congregationalist minister to serve the Church. At that time a larger structure was built on McFarlane Road. George Spalding started urging the congregation to invest in land and they purchased a tract subdivided by Coral Gables founder George E. Merrick and George Spalding. The original part of the church was begun in June, 1916, and completed in August, 1917.

The architect for Plymouth Congregational was New Yorker Clinton MacKenzie,, a nationally known church architect who modeled the design after the old Spanish missions of Mexico. The church was constructed as a one story rectangular structure with a gable roof covered with corrugated clay tiles. It is built out of native oolitic limestone. The building is noted for its twin bell towers, curvilinear gable roof, and elaborate front entrance. The front door came from a monastery in the Pyrenees Mountains and is approximately 375 years old. It is made of hand carved walnut backed with oak and still has original hand wrought iron fitting. All of the stonework for the church was laid by Spanaird Felix Rebom and his assistant. Rebom used only a hatchet, a trowel, a plumb line, and a T-square.

The Plymouth campus is home to the first schoolhouse of Coconut Grove, also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it includes the former homes of two U.S. Navy admirals. The church contains an outdoor garden on the west side which is used for weddings.

A large church expansion took place between 1947 and 1971, and membership increased from under 100 to nearly 2,000 people. During an expansion in 1954 Robert Law Weed, changed the plan of the church from rectangular to cross-shaped. Two transepts (the arms of the cross) and a new chancel (the part of the church near the alter) were added. In 1959, educational rooms, a church office building, and a fellowship hall, were added.

On July 23, 1974, Plymouth Congretional Church was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. In 2017 the church celebrated its one hundred year anniversary. Rev. Bunis has served as Senior Pastor at Plymouth since November 2014. He and his wife, Lynn, came from Brooklyn. Worship is held every Sunday at 10 PM. I love that that you can still come worship in a church that is so entwined with the history of...

Beautiful church, terrible people. They have a basketball court in the back that in the past 3 years has NEVER been used in the afternoons or on weekends. I tried calling to see what’s up with it and whether anyone is using it or whether we could rent it to play pickleball. Once we came there with our little kids and started playing, the lady came out and said that a “youth event is about to start” and we need to leave. Obviously, no event followed until midnight that day (I live right across). We came the next weekend back and that same lady came out and told us to leave. I inquired whom we could approach to ask about whether we could pay to schedule playing here for an hour once in a blue moon to which she responded we couldn’t. The whole church property is open for walking around it and all the neighbors walk there all the time. Interestingly enough, this court is regularly used as parking for adjacent houses - is the lady renting it for parking fee and making some side income on church property? I highly doubt the church would refuse to make money off unused court and I know for a fact that the court is not used by any “youth events”. Even when the school has events, no one is in that back area where the court is. Something shady is going on with that lady and I wish someone else responded to my calls about allowing neighborhood children...

Years ago, I attended a friend’s wedding at Plymouth, and the beauty of the church left a lasting impression on me. So, when my husband and I got engaged, Plymouth was the first place that came to mind for our own wedding. From the moment we reached out, we knew we made the right choice.

Donna, the wedding director, welcomed us with warmth and enthusiasm during our tour. She is truly a beam of light—kind, funny, humble, and incredibly sweet. Her positive energy and genuine care made us feel instantly at ease, and we left that meeting confident that Plymouth was the perfect place for our special day.

The entire process was seamless. Mary, who guided us through the rehearsal and ceremony, was an absolute delight. Her energy and fun personality made our wedding ceremony enjoyable and stress-free.

A heartfelt thank you to Donna and Mary for making our wedding experience truly special. Their kindness, expertise, and dedication turned our dream ceremony into a reality.

Plymouth will forever hold a special place in our hearts, and we couldn’t recommend it more for anyone searching for the perfect...