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Like a lump of earth in skilled hands, an old train depot is morphing into a thing of beauty and utility for the St. Petersburg Clay Company, home of some nonstarving artists.
By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 10, 2002
ST. PETERSBURG -- New digs for the St. Petersburg Clay Company will bring a prestigious new presence to the local arts community and also bring new life to a neighborhood struggling to revitalize itself.
The Seaboard Coastline Railroad Station at 420 22nd St. S sits on the edge of an economically depressed district targeted by the city for redevelopment. A group of investors, most of whom are also ceramics artists, bought the historic brick building in June 2000 for $400,000. Renovations and construction totaling another $500,000 are near completion and will transform the depot into "one of the premier ceramics resources in the U.S.," according to one of the partners, artist Russ Gustafson-Hilton.
Even though the Clay Company will probably not generate jobs for the area, which includes the Palmetto Park neighborhood and the 22nd Street business district, its presence as a for-profit business and the cachet of its artistic affiliations are considered by neighbors to be a great asset.
"It's going to make the area nicer and safer," said Ezell Boykins Sr., a resident of that area for 74 years.
"We think it is quite an asset to our district," said Suzanne LaBerge, manager of the nearby Grand Central District. "Anything new, construction and business, is positive. And I've always admired the building."
"We will serve the neighborhood here in the sense that all arts groups serve the community," Gustafson-Hilton said, "by what we do and what we are."
The 34,000-square-foot building, built in 1926, was once part of a bustling commercial zone. Trains stopped at the depot to unload merchandise for local businesses. Some of their names -- McCrory's, Maas Brothers -- are scrawled on the walls by the loading docks. Trains still rumble along the tracks next to the depot but have not stopped there for years. The building, like the much of the surrounding area, has been in decline and dereliction.
But where many saw a wreck, the artists saw a swan.
Most of the interior was open space, perfect for partitioning into studios. Sun poured through skylights. Thick concrete floors and unfinished brick walls were good foundations for equipment. Loading docks allowed for easy delivery of large amounts of materials.
And there was enough land for construction of an outdoor kiln area with four wood-burning kilns.
One is an anagama, the only one of its size in Florida, prized for the beauty of the glaze produced as burning wood becomes ash that falls and melds with the clay. That kiln will take five days to fire up, can maintain a temperature of 2,300 degrees for four days and accommodate up to 1,000 vessels at one time.
When finished, the building will house studios for 50 artists, a kiln room with 16 electric and two gas kilns, a glaze room, retail, gallery and storage space, and teaching areas.
The Clay Company, currently located at a smaller facility on 23rd Street and 16th Avenue N, has brought in renowned ceramics artists for workshops and exhibitions for years, often partnering with the Arts Center. With the larger facility, they will have more room for workshops with master potters. In the future, the group wants to build a residential component next door that could house artists and teachers for longer programs.
The lead partners in Seaboard Partners Ltd., the investment group that purchased the depot, are Sean and Beth Manning, Gustafson-Hilton, Charlie Parker and Stan Cowen, all ceramics artists. Gustafson-Hilton, Parker and Cowen are also founders of St. Petersburg Clay Company, which was formed in 1996.
The partners declined to discuss revenues but say they have made money from the beginning.
"We had to be profitable from day one," said Cowen, the managing partner of the business.
"I've never bought into that romantic idea of the starving artist," Gustafson-Hilton said. "Why would I want to be a starving artist? People say, "Oh, now you're a businessman as well as an artist.' I've always been a businessman, kept books, paid taxes. This is just bigger."
Revenue will come from leasing studio space and from the sale of clay and other supplies and equipment, a component of the business that has burgeoned over the years.
"We bought clay and other things for ourselves and other artists," Cowen said. "Our clay was so good, we started getting requests for it."
They now supply it to schools in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and several local colleges. It has become enough work that they have signed Highwater Clay Co. of North Carolina to manage those sales, "so we can get back to being artists," Cowen said.
The site now bustles with construction workers and artists rushing to finish the project. A fundraising auction for Florida Craftsmen, another arts organization with ties to the clay company artists, will be held there Feb. 22, the first time it will be open to the public.
Some volunteers have come from as far away as the East Coast to help build the outdoor kilns. One, internationally known ceramics artist Don Reitz, spent two weeks here stacking the 10-pound bricks used for the kiln walls.
"This is very unique," he said. "I wanted to come and be a part of it."
Boykins, 80, said that "In its day, (the neighborhood) was quite a thing. Maybe I won't be around for it, but I think in the next few years it'll be bright lights there again."