The Westminster Presbyterian Church, located at the corner of 11th Ave. NE and 1st St. in the historic Old Northeast neighborhood, was designed in 1926 by well known architect Archie Parrish.
December 2019: City Council voted to start the application process to designate Westminster Presbyterian Church as a local historic landmark.
February 2020: Community Planning & Preservation Commission (CPPC) will conduct a public hearing to consider the application.
March 2020: The Westminster Presbyterian Church receives local historic landmark designation.
June 2021: The Westminster Presbyterian Church is sold and purchased by 126 11th Acquisitions, LLC. They have not announced specific plans in regards to renovations for the time.
The Church and its property are presently for sale by the Presbytery of Tampa Bay. The site is comprised of 7 lots in total, and there is concern that the Church might be demolished by a developer.Historic churches like Westminster are important to a neighborhood's character and sense of place. In addition to being a place of worship, these buildings have often served as a neighborhood meeting hall, school, voting site, or as a hub for social service programs or the arts. Today, many historic churches are facing an uncertain future as the role of religion in American culture changes.
There is great opportunity as the function and use of our great historic church buildings change. Recently, St. Petersburg has seen two historic church buildings designated as local landmarks and successfully reused. The former Church of the Beatitudes in Crescent Heights is being converted to a single family residence and the former New Redeemer Lutheran Church in Central Oak Park has been converted to office use. The character and ambience these places provide is unrivaled, and cannot be matched by new construction.
