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Curious to learn more about preservation or ways to get involved in your community, but don’t know where to start? We’re here to help. In our blog, our preservation experts break down current advocacy issues, ways to get involved, and local St. Pete happenings.
Would we be St. Pete without the buildings that makes us special? Can you imagine downtown without the funky Crislip Arcade in Central Avenue’s 600 Block or without First Block and the city’s most historic building—the Detroit Hotel, built by the city founders in 1888? What about Fourth Street without the iconic Sunken Gardens or 22nd Street without Mercy Hospital or the Manhattan Casino? Would St. Pete be the same without these historic pieces to our built environment?
City Council closed out 2024 by voting 5-2 in favor of an application to create a Local Historic District around Mirror Lake. The designation is the city’s first since 2021, the tenth overall, and the second in downtown.
To some, it seemed like a race: the creation of a Mirror Lake historic district with guidelines for future development, or watching its historic structures demolished. For the past few years, demolition has been comfortably in the lead.
The effort to create a Local Historic District around Mirror Lake encountered a slight delay last month when the Community Planning and Preservation Commission (CPPC) failed to reach a quorum and was unable to vote on the application.
