Garden Cafe Demolished

While the Garden Cafeteria hasn't been used as a cafe in 40 years, its history is a part of St. Petersburg. 

Today, that part of the city's history came crashing to the ground after it was demolished after the lot was sold. 

According St. Pete Preservation board member Kai Warren, the structure’s architecture helped make St. Petersburg unique. The building was located on 2nd Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue N. 

Inside, the tropical walls were painted by historic local artist George Snow Hill, who also has a painting still hanging in City Hall. 

According to Warren, with the sale of the building, the Pendergast family demolished the structure. 

"It's really a unique building," Warren told Patch. "You don’t see many mission-style structures of that size in St. Petersburg."

The cafe's building, also known as the piano exchange building, was built in 1923 and was originally The First Baptist Tabernacle, Warren said. 

In the 30s the church became an auto garage and then morphed into the tropical-style cafeteria. Warren said the cafeteria was last used in the late 70s, which then became the piano exchange. 

Warrens laments the demolition of the structure because he says a part of the city's character is demolished with the building. 

"When you start losing those type of structures, then you become like all other modern, bland towns," Warren said.