Downtown’s Historic Mirror Lake neighborhood extends between 8th and 4th Streets and between 1st and 5th Avenues North. The area still retains much of the city's early feel. In 1899 Mirror Lake became the public water supply for the small but growing downtown. By the early 1900’s one of the city’s early leading developers, Perry Snell, had started developing the orange groves around the lake. By the 1920’s boom, winter residents and visitors were flocking to Mirror Lake to play shuffleboard, go to the library, dance at the Coliseum, as well as taking up residence in one of the neighborhood's rooming houses or hotels.
The area around Mirror Lake has retained a human scale uninterrupted by monolithic parking structures supporting high rise towers now found in other portions of downtown. Instead, one finds downtown’s most intact collection of historic homes and small apartment buildings, many of which are tucked away on small parcels along narrow courts or allies. Additionally, Mirror Lake is home to city parkland that includes the Shuffleboard Club, lawn bowling courts and chess club, each with its own historic clubhouse. Across from these facilities the 1914 Carnegie (Mirror Lake) Library is still being used for its original purpose as a free public library. Finally, within the area around Mirror Lake one finds several historic church and governmental buildings.
Eleven buildings within the neighborhood have been designated as local landmarks but the greater neighborhood, including most of the property overlooking the lake, lacks local historic designation, and as such, has no demolition review nor protections in place against out of scale new development.
1899: Mirror Lake becomes the downtown water supply with the construction of a water works. The 1900 census pegged St. Petersburg's population at 1,575.
1915: City receives a $17,500 Carnegie grant to construct the Mirror Lake Library.
1918-19: The St. Petersburg High School is built at a cost of $205,000, designed by nationally known architect William Ittner. Later, in 1991, the building would be renovated and converted to 50 condominium apartments.
1918-1926: The Shuffleboard, Chess, and Lawn Bowling Clubs all build clubhouses on city land across the street from Mirror Lake. In 2000, the Shuffleboard Club begins its reorganization leading to it regaining its popularity and attracting younger members and families for Friday Shuffle.
1974: I-375 is constructed, separating the Mirror Lake neighborhood from the Round Lake (Historic Uptown) neighborhood.
2019: City council rejects Preserve the 'Burg's appeal and approves a 21 story high rise tower that will result in the demolition of several historic apartment buildings, located across the street from the Library. A majority of city council found their hands tied as they concluded the out of place development, not being located within the boundaries of a local historic district, was consistent with downtown zoning regulations.
2021: In July, the City Council held a public hearing and discussed initiating a Mirror Lake historic district application. The discussion was continued, and then officially withdrawn in August 2021.
2022: Residents approached Preserve the ‘Burg about assisting with another application.
2024: After two years of hard work by residents and volunteers, scrutiny and review by City staff and a recommendation of approval by the Community Planning and Preservation Commission, City Council approved the Mirror Lake Local Historic District in December of 2024.
