According to the 1880 census of Brevard County there were just five Black men who were heads of families. Three of the Black freedmen were Peter Wright, Wright Brothers and Balaam Allen. Captain Peter Wright was the mail carrier while occupations of Balaam Allen and Wright Brothers are unknown. They settled along the north and south banks of the river now known as Crane Creek. Brothers and Allen settled along the south side of the creek now known as Melbourne, Florida.   
 
In 1884, in the dining room of a tiny house on the southern banks of Crane Creek, organizers met for the purpose of establishing a place of worship for themselves and others of the Black community. Those who met in the dining room of Wright and Mary Brothers, included Robert and Carrie Lipscomb, and Balaam and Salina Allen.  In 1885, the first church structure for Allen Chapel African Methodist Church, now known as Greater Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was built on the northern end of what is now Lipscomb Street. This was Melbourne’s first house of worship. The house still stands.