100-year-old St. Pete service station to become coffee shop
By Breanne Williams
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 19, 2023

St. Petersburg's oldest gas station will be transformed into a coffee shop after city council unanimously voted to designate the property a historic landmark.

The site, near 24th Avenue and Fourth Street South in the Harbordale neighborhood, opened in the late 1920s. Former city council member Robert Blackmon is restoring the property. Though originally a Standard Oil service station, the building was home to a number of businesses before falling into disrepair.

“For years and years, I drove by that site and shook my head and shook my fist at it,” Blackmon said. “It was always the worst, most blighted site in a historically blighted neighborhood.”

Blackmon researched the property's history and discovered it was the oldest surviving gas station in the city. There are only two identical surviving buildings in the U.S., and both are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Blackmon bought the station for $125,000 in 2019 and has made several improvements. The roof collapsed; new impact windows were installed.

He's also faced challenges along the way. When contractors stripped down and sandblasted the old paint, they found the original brick, but a large hole was missing. Blackmon tracked down a pile of matching bricks in Georgia.

He’s worked for three and a half years to get the project before the city council. Thursday's vote to support the historic designation and allow for a drive-thru allows Blackmon to move forward.

“From a sociology perspective, I wanted to see if you could take the worst property in a neighborhood, fix it up, and bring up an entire area,” Blackmon said. “This is not a financial winner. But we’re trying to make it as historic as possible. I understand by designating it as historic I’m precluding a lot of uses for the site, but I think there is a demand and a use for that building in today’s world.”

When complete, the building will be a point of pride for Harbordale, he said.

Plans include transforming the approximately 320-square-foot building into a coffee shop with small bites that feature a drive-thru and outdoor seating under the old canopy, which is approximately 420 square feet.

He envisions either a new or a local concept searching for a secondary location as the best fit for the property. The site is “quirky” and will require a specific kind of person to appreciate the property's uniqueness, he said.

Harbordale has a deep history in the city and Blackmon said he hopes the “worst to first” mentality he’s adopted for this project will help draw people to this long-overlooked part of St. Pete.

Condominiums are rising in neighborhoods not far from the service station. Blackmon said he knew if he didn’t purchase it and seek historic landmark designation, a developer would demolish it to build luxury residences.

“We’ve seen growth, but the reason we’ve seen growth in St. Pete is because we are unique culturally,” Blackmon said. “As we’ve seen the growth, we’re erasing some of the culture that made us successful in the first place. We’re working backward and spinning our wheels because we see progress up top, but we’re losing what made us special in the first place.”