African American History in St. Petersburg: Heritage Trail and Landmarks

St. Petersburg's first Black neighborhoods grew from railroad work: Orange Belt Railway laborers who arrived in 1888 founded Peppertown near 3rd and 4th Avenues South, followed by Methodist Town and Cooper's Quarters (City of St. Petersburg, History of St. Pete).

Black settlement in St. Pete began two decades before the railroad. The city's history page names John Donaldson and Anna Germain, who arrived in 1868, as the area's first Black settlers; they married and built a homestead at what became 18th Ave. South and 31st St. South, and the Donaldsons stayed the only African American family settled in present-day St. Pete for 20 years (History of St. Pete).

The railroad crews changed that. Peppertown, just east of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St., is credited as the first of the predominantly Black St. Petersburg neighborhoods, and the city page says historians trace its name to the abundance and variety of peppers grown there in gardens and pots. Methodist Town lay between 9th and 14th Streets North and Burlington Ave. N and 5th Ave. N., while Cooper's Quarters covered roughly 1st to 5th Avenues South between 9th and 16th Streets South; the two tall cylinders holding the city's natural gas supply later gave Cooper's Quarters the name Gas Plant neighborhood (History of St. Pete).

The Deuces was the 22nd Street South hub of business and entertainment for the African American community of segregation-era St. Petersburg, and it peaked in the 1960s (Manhattan Casino, History of St. Pete).

The city's history page counts more than 100 Black-owned or operated businesses, entertainment spots and professional offices at that peak, with the Manhattan Casino drawing nationally known African American musicians (History of St. Pete).

Segregation was written into St. Petersburg law. The heritage trail notes that the 1931 City Charter set separate residential districts for white and black residents and that City Council passed laws separating businesses and facilities by race, which effectively barred African Americans from downtown except when working; in the 1950s the boundary lines were redrawn several times (African American Heritage Trail). Shut out of downtown shops and services, residents turned a dirt trail called 22nd St. S. into their own commercial and professional street.

Its anchors are still named on the St. Pete trail markers. Elder Jordan Sr. and his sons built the Jordan Dance Hall, later the Manhattan Casino, in 1925; it was a stop on the Chitlin' Circuit and the center of the neighborhood's entertainment for more than 40 years. The Royal Theater opened in 1948 in a Quonset-hut building as one of two theaters African Americans could attend, and Mercy Hospital opened in 1923, replacing a smaller hospital that had operated in the Gas Plant neighborhood as early as 1913 (Heritage Trail). The city's Manhattan Casino page gives a different sequence: Elder Jordan contracted with R.L. Sharpe in 1925 to build a 12,000 sq. ft. two-story hall that first opened as the Jordan Dance Hall in 1931, and the venue closed in 1968 before its revival as an event hall (Manhattan Casino).

The professional side of 22nd Street South shows up in the same markers. In 1954 Dr. Swain built a dental clinic on 22nd St. S. just south of the 15th Ave. S. color boundary, and C. Bette Wimbish, who fought to desegregate schools, became the first woman of color elected to the St. Petersburg City Council; the Wimbish Building housed Doctors' Pharmacy, the first black owned and operated pharmacy in the neighborhood (Heritage Trail). By 1977 many 22nd Street businesses had closed or moved, and buildings were demolished for interstate construction.

The 9th Avenue South corridor of St. Petersburg held the community's schools, churches and civic clubs, with nine historic African American churches along the trail route (African American Heritage Trail).

Schooling came first in St. Pete with Davis Academy, opened in 1914 as the first formal educational institution for African Americans in the city. Jordan Academy followed in 1925, named for Elder Jordan Sr., a trustee for African American schools, and Gibbs High School opened in 1927 as the first public secondary school for African Americans in St. Petersburg (Heritage Trail). The trail calls the restored Jordan Elementary School the oldest remaining historic African American school in the city.

Faith and civic life clustered nearby. In 1939 about 19 of the 123 churches in St. Petersburg were in the 22nd St. S. neighborhood. Happy Workers Day Nursery opened at Trinity Presbyterian in 1929 with five children whose parents paid 25 cents a week, and it served more than 200 preschoolers by 1956. Fannye Ayer Ponder founded the City Federation of Colored Women's Clubs in 1938, the Lauffer Branch YWCA opened in 1950, and the trail dates the NAACP's formation to 1933 (Heritage Trail).

Housing and recreation complete the 9th Avenue story. The Jordan Park Housing Complex, funded by the U.S. Housing Authority and named for Elder Jordan Sr., opened in 1941 with 446 apartments; the St. Pete trail notes that the all-black complex improved housing for hundreds while also reinforcing segregation. Campbell Park, leased to the City from 1926 and bought in 1943, hosted the community's major celebrations, parades and sporting events, including Negro League games (Heritage Trail).

The St. Petersburg African American Heritage Trail is a self-guided walk of nineteen markers in two corridors of about 1.25 miles each, both starting at the Woodson museum (African American Heritage Trail).

The city trail page gives the shared starting point as the Carter G. Woodson Museum at 2240 9th Ave. S, so a walk on either corridor begins at the same South St. Pete address.

The 22nd Street Trail, titled Community, Culture, and Commerce, covers the business corridor, landmark businesses and the move from Jim Crow through desegregation; the 9th Avenue Trail, Faith, Family, and Education, covers schools, housing, clubs and churches. Each corridor includes ten trail stops, and together the trail covers more than a dozen city blocks in South St. Pete. Ten stops on each of two corridors would make twenty, while the same page counts nineteen markers and does not explain the difference (Heritage Trail). The city's history page describes the trail as a collaboration between the City of St. Petersburg and the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg, covering 1868 to the end of the Civil Rights era in 1968 (History of St. Pete).

Groups and classes can book a guided walking or trolley tour of the St. Pete trail through the African American Heritage Association, and the city lists its Historic Preservation Staff at [email protected] as the trail contact (Heritage Trail). The trail page groups the 22nd Street markers as the North/South Corridor and the 9th Avenue markers as the East/West Corridor, so a visitor short on time can pick one St. Pete corridor by interest: commerce on 22nd Street South, or schools and churches on 9th Avenue South.

Nine places tied to the heritage trail are on the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places, from the Ponder Council House Site in 1991 to the Jordan Park Administration Building in 2021 (St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places, Heritage Trail).

Local designation matters more than it sounds in St. Petersburg. The city's Historic Preservation page says that, unlike National Register listing, local landmark designation gives a property a degree of protection from unnecessary demolition or unsympathetic alterations, and that staff review proposed changes to designated properties (Historic Preservation). The city's own list of National Register properties, dated as of March 2022, does not include Mercy Hospital, the Manhattan Casino, the Royal Theater or Jordan Elementary; their designation on the city's lists is the local one, on the St. Petersburg Register (National Register list, March 2022).

The National Register list is dated as of March 2022, the latest entry on the local register list is dated January 2022, and both are labeled Historic Preservation Ordinance Update resource guides, so a later designation may not appear on them (St. Petersburg Register). The Historic Preservation page also links a Historic Preservation Map, and its staff review changes to locally designated properties through Certificates of Appropriateness (Historic Preservation). Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the City of St. Petersburg heritage trail and historic preservation pages.

The Woodson African American Museum of Florida, at 2240 9th Ave S in St. Petersburg, is open Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m., and its listings show free admission for current exhibits, according to the museum's own site (The Woodson).

The museum lists its phone as 727-323-1104. Its exhibit listings on October 18, 2026 include The Underground Railroad Experience in the Legacy Garden and Many Voices, One Nation, both running July 2026 to January 2027; the second was developed with Florida Humanities, the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The Harriet Tubman: The Beacon of Hope sculpture is listed as a permanent offering in the Legacy Garden (The Woodson).

The museum's St. Petersburg address is itself on the local register: the Jordan Park Administration Building at 2240 9th Ave S was designated in July 2021 (St. Petersburg Register), a building that carries the name of the Jordan Park Housing Complex the trail dates to 1941.

The City of St. Petersburg says the Historic Gas Plant community was displaced nearly 40 years ago for the pursuit of Major League Baseball, and that promised jobs and equitable development never came (Historic Gas Plant District Redevelopment).

That stadium became what is now Tropicana Field, and the city page says residents and businesses were forced to relocate with the promise of jobs, opportunity and equitable development, which did not materialize (Gas Plant District page).

In its questions and answers on the 2022 request for proposals, the city page lists a Gas Plant Promise among the priorities for new proposals: the site must recognize, honor and support the community displaced by construction of the original stadium. The development agreement it describes includes a $50 million commitment to intentional equity initiatives with South St. Petersburg, covering affordable housing funding, employment and business support and education programs and Minority/Women Owned Business Enterprises hiring goals (Gas Plant District page).

The same page mixes old and new material, which is worth knowing before relying on it. Its latest press release, dated October 21, 2025, says the City received an unsolicited proposal for the approximately 86 acres and would give public notice under Florida Statute 163.380, yet the page still shows an Upcoming Milestones list that names 2025 for the start of construction and 2028 for a proposed new ballpark, next to a Tropicana Field roof repair timeline that ends with the April 2026 season (Gas Plant District page).