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Reversal sought for history's sake

An appeal aims to save the former Garden Cafeteria site.

By JON WILSON
Published April 15, 2007

DOWNTOWN ST. PETERSBURG - Preservationists will continue to fight a developer's plan to build a 19-story residential and retail tower that will mean tearing down a historic cafeteria building.

St. Petersburg Preservation Inc. will ask the City Council to reverse an April 4 decision by the city development board that approved The Sonata, a $27-million project at 232 Second St. N.

Preservation Inc.'s lawyer, Peter Belmont, filed the appeal paperwork Friday morning, said Will Michaels, president of the group.

The council is expected to hear it in late spring.

The building was the site of several businesses, most notably the Garden Cafeteria, which operated from 1935 until 1975. (It is separate from the currently operating Garden restaurant on Central Avenue.)

Part of what historians have called St. Petersburg's "cafeteria culture," the Garden was one of many scattered downtown. The Tramor, owned by the St. Petersburg Times, is the last one remaining as a functioning cafeteria, Michaels said.

Old postcards of the Garden show a cavernous interior. Throughout, shrubs spill from planters. Visible on one wall is a huge banyan-tree mural by regional artist George Snow Hill.

Easily accessible during its heyday to residents of downtown boarding houses, the Garden served tourists and thousands of servicemen who trained here during World War II.

The building is not a designated landmark, nationally or locally.

But it is one of the structures that helped downtown win a national historic designation in 2004.

The home of the Piano Exchange from 1979 until recently, the Garden is an example of the Spanish mission-style architecture that became popular during the 1920s boom. The building dates from that era.

Among its other strong historic connections are those with Hill, the muralist, and its architect, Edgar Ferdon.

Perhaps the city's first architect, Ferdon came to St. Petersburg in 1903 and designed such buildings as First Congregational Church on Fourth Street N and the Crislip Arcade on Central Avenue.

If the building eventually is scheduled for demolition, the preservation group will ask that certain elements be saved, such as the murals, Michaels said.

The developer, Grahar Second Street, is willing to address any historical issues short of preserving the building, Michaels said.

[Last modified April 14, 2007, 20:23:48]