Featured image: Portrait of MB Welch that mentions his buildings and his hobbies. All photos courtesy of Amy (Welch) Walker.

During the 1920s land boom, St. Petersburg expanded at a pace that reshaped the city almost overnight. Across that growing landscape, contractor M. B. Welch was at work, building not just in one area but throughout the city, converting plans into places people would live, gather, and invest in. The Old Northeast holds one important concentration of his surviving homes, but his reach extended well beyond it – to Downtown St. Pete, Grenada Terrace, and Crescent Heights, to St. Pete Beach, Disston Heights, Crescent Lake, and the Pink Streets.… Read More

Featured image: Murawski lab members spent a lot of time organizing samples post-fire. Courtesy of Layne Leggett.

As smoke rose over downtown on Saturday, May 2, marine science graduate student Layne Leggett stood in the Al Lang stadium watching a fire she didn’t yet realize would change her future.

By the end of the night, the University of South Florida’s Marine Science Laboratory in downtown St. Petersburg was destroyed.

Two months later, the community has come together to raise more than $400,000 and relocate the people and samples displaced in the fire. 

What Happened? 

On Saturday, May 2, dozens of media outlets documented the massive fire at the Marine Science Laboratory at USFSP.… Read More

Following the red brick roads, most paved with Augusta Block, will not get you to the land of Oz. But it will lead to an enchanting walk in time back to early St. Petersburg. That’s what Polita Glynn does with her recent film, The Brick Roads of St. Petersburg.

Glynn is a documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, and creative storyteller, with a background in American studies and history. Glynn says she has “always been drawn to the past,” and is “enthusiastic about storytelling as a way to get people to see our community and city with different perspective.” She studied film and television as a way to tell those stories. … Read More

Featured image: Charles Morrison of the Morean Center for Clay chats with Margaret Murray from Creative Pinellas at Open Studio. Photo by Luci Westphal.

St. Petersburg has a thriving art scene, with crowds flocking to shows and galleries every second saturday for Art Walk. But when do the artists get to go? 

In March, artist Luci Westphal started her latest initiative – a special night before the art walks where various art groups open their studios to other creatives. 

“There is a huge benefit to have one evening a month where we can have a focused visit to a building with other artists’ studios,” says Luci.… Read More

Featured image: MoM allies, from left, Mary Havlock and Sierra Clark with founder and Executive Director Martha Joy Rose and ally. Photos courtesy of the MoM.

Barbara Lynch believes St. Petersburg got a rare gift when Martha Joy Rose brought the Museum of Motherhood from New York to The Factory St. Pete.

“I feel like St. Petersburg was blessed with this,” Lynch said, “because, you know, she could have gone anywhere.”

For Mother’s Day, that blessing offers more than a place to celebrate moms. The Museum of Motherhood invites visitors to think about motherhood as art, labor, history, science, identity, and community care.… Read More

Featured image: Fisherwomen Erika Almond says of the local waters, “Our fishery is amazing.

Think fishing is a man’s hobby? Think again. More women pick up the recreation every year, for fun and for sport. As an avid fisher myself, I got curious about stories from some of our own local fisherwomen. I had the privilege of interviewing four area women passionate about fishing about what drew them to the seas, why the waters around St. Pete are the best, and how camaraderie makes the sport that much better. 

Marlo K. Alleva: A Stand-Up Fisherwoman 

Marlo K. Alleva learned how to freshwater fish during summers with her grandparents, “climbing down the high creek banks behind their piano shop,” she recalls. She… Read More

The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art recently held an exhibit celebrating the work of acclaimed photographer and ethnologist Edward S. Curtis. Best known for his monumental early 20th-century publication of the North American Indian, Curtis took photos of indigenous Americans over 23 years beginning in 1907. The publication includes twenty volumes, features more than 100 native nations and tribes, and contains over 2,200 images. The original work is exceedingly rare with fewer than 300 sets printed. In 2021 a set sold for $950,000.

While this work is an important archive of the culture of native peoples at the beginnings of the last century, it is also a reflection of Curtis’s artistry and mastery of photographic mediums.… Read More

Featured image: The Woodson Warriors scholarship program celebrated community and camaraderie at December’s Holiday Mid-Term Luncheon.

Although the Woodson African American Museum of Florida is temporarily closed as renovations continue – doors are expected to reopen later this spring – the museum’s mission has not faltered.

“Through exhibitions, educational programming, community engagement and scholarship initiatives, The Woodson serves as a living repository of Black heritage, honoring the past, illuminating the present, and inspiring future generations,” said Executive Director Terri Lipsey Scott.

One way the museum inspires future generations is through The Woodson Warrior Scholarship, which reflects the mission of the museum itself “to preserve, present, interpret, celebrate, and educate the public about African American history and culture.” … Read More

Featured image: Lodwick created publicity stunts like the “Purity League,” which had Mayor Frank Pulver measuring the length of ladies bathing attire to assure it complied with a (fictitious) city ordinance, image c 1922. Courtesy of St. Petersburg Museum of History

Babe Ruth is rightly credited with putting St. Pete on the national map, as early St. Pete Mayor and baseball booster Al Lang reflected, “The Yankees with Babe Ruth and their stars meant millions to this town.” But there was another promoter diligently working to do the same. His name was John Lodwick.

Lodwick was born in 1890. He began his career as a messenger boy at age 13 for the Associated Press in Cleveland, Ohio.… Read More

Featured image: For generations, Williams Park has served as St. Petersburg’s original city square. Image via Florida Memory.

On a recent Saturday during Localtopia, Williams Park didn’t feel like an afterthought. It felt like a destination.

Families filled the walkways. Food trucks lined the park’s edge. Neighbors lingered beneath 82 shade trees while music drifted from the bandshell. For a few hours, St. Petersburg’s first public space looked exactly like what it was meant to be in 1888: a town square.

That description isn’t accidental. “It was the first platted public space for the city,” said Shaun Drinkard, vice president of the St.… Read More