The love story was family lore. As a girl, Amy Welch (now Walker) recalled her grandparents M.B. and Mary Welch telling the story of the day in 1927 when M.B. showed up at the San Rafel Hotel on the corner of Locust Street and 13th Avenue NE in today’s Historic Old Northeast neighborhood, which M.B. constructed. One of the workers told him, “You just missed the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen!” The woman, it turns out, was Mary Benham, sister-in-law to building owner Fred Morgan and proprietor of Aunt Mary’s Tea Room in the San Rafel Hotel. Welch made sure not to miss her again, and the two were married on July 31, 1928.
It was one of the only glimpses into her grandfather’s past that Amy received when she was young. As children are wont to do, Amy assumed that her grandfather Welch had always been the same person she knew growing up and that he had always worked as the construction supervisor at Derby Lane. She remembers occasional vague mentions of a building he’d constructed here or there, but not much else. As an adult she moved to Gainesville, and didn’t give family history much thought until she returned to St. Petersburg in 2019 to care for her ailing parents. After her father’s passing in 2022, she was going through an old drawer when she stumbled upon a box full of photos and newspaper clippings. She had come upon a treasure trove of memories of her grandfather’s prolific construction career.
Maynard B. “M.B.” Welch was one of the busiest contractors in St. Petersburg during the 1920s real estate boom. He built many landmarks that remain standing today. If you live in a large, historic apartment building in the Historic Old Northeast in St. Petersburg, chances are good that you live in an M.B. Welch building. Lucky for us, M.B. was good at photographing his buildings, although not always great about identifying their locations in the photos. Amy had stumbled upon an archival gold mine. It turned her into an amateur detective who pored over photographs with a magnifying glass and spent many Saturdays driving around St. Petersburg trying to identify buildings she found in the photos, many of which were approaching 100 years old. (The list of Welch’s buildings at the end of the story is the result of Amy’s hard work.)
Welch’s Mediterranean Row
Around the same time that Amy moved back to St. Petersburg, interest in Welch was stirring on 19th Avenue NE, where a group of homeowners sought to protect their unique collection of homes from the threat of demolition. From the corner of First Street to Bay Street, on the south side of 19th Avenue NE, lies an uninterrupted stretch of distinct one-story Mediterranean Revival style homes, all built by M.B. Welch. Neighbors knew that to lose just one of this perfect row of houses would destroy the character of the street. The result was the designation of a local historic district named for the man who built the homes. By calling it Welch’s Mediterranean Row, they revived a name that was nearly lost to history.
Sandy Syvertsen has lived in St. Petersburg since 1995 and moved to 19th Avenue NE in 2006. When asked what drew him to the street he said, “Everyone that has bought along the block has always put money and love into it to keep the houses restored. It is one of the few blocks in the Old Northeast that has these Mediterranean-style homes. You don’t realize until you live in the house, even though they’re small, and even though they seem close together, when you’re inside it really has a lot of space. Especially the outside space.”
In a neighborhood known for its mix of architectural styles, from Mediterranean Revival to Craftsman Bungalow to Tudor, Welch’s Mediterranean Row is unusual in its adherence to a single style. It looks like a street in Hollywood or Santa Fe. Welch didn’t build only in the Mediterranean Revival style; he also built to the tastes of his clients, and he was good at it. You’ve probably driven or walked past an M.B. Welch building that has stood the test of time, and stood it well.
The San Rafel (no Rafael)
Perhaps the most shining example is the San Rafel Hotel and Apartments at 13th Avenue NE and Locust Street. (Yes, it’s San Rafel, not Rafael.) When first built, it was advertised as the height of hotel/apartment living, with seven large units and 26 smaller “2 room and a bath” units, each boasting white enamel electric kitchens. But it was what was located on the first floor that might impress residents of St. Pete in 2024. Today, the first floor has additional apartments, each with a cozy patio, but when it was constructed, the first floor of the San Rafel was a mix of retail that today’s Old Northeast residents can only dream of. There was a drugstore, a grocer, a meat market, a book and novelty shop, a beauty parlor, and – of course – the tea room where M.B. Welch met the most beautiful woman in town.
Welch’s apartment buildings dot the neighborhood. The Retzel, just down the street from the San Rafel, was originally built in a similar Mediterranean Revival style. Today, with the removal of some tile and a clever paint scheme, it has an Art Moderne look. The bones are still the sturdy ones Welch built.
One of the most interesting adaptations of a M.B. Welch building is the historic church at 801 28th Ave. N in the Crescent Heights neighborhood. In 2021, the church was renovated and became a stunning 3,500-square-foot single-family home.
The Bust Hits Hard
Like many others in his line of work, Welch came upon hard times with the real estate bust in 1926. “He was down to his last $500,” Amy recalls. “He gave $300 to my grandmother and took one of his construction supervisors to Gadsden, Alabama, where they helped build the BFGoodrich tire plant. That’s where my dad, M.B. Welch Jr., was born.”
The siren song of St. Pete called Welch back. He returned in 1934 and resumed building. When the war started, he built homes in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for workers at the top-secret town created for the Manhattan Project.
Welch’s Ramblers
To only talk about M.B. Welch’s work in construction is to miss his other contributions to the city. In a way, his interests epitomized the city itself. In the 1920s and ‘30s, when Major League Baseball visited only for the spring, Welch sponsored and managed the Rambling Welchmen, one of the best semi-professional baseball teams in the state’s robust system of amateur leagues. He also brought his love of basketball from his Indiana roots and built the city’s first outdoor basketball court in the Mirror Lake Recreation (Shuffleboard) Complex. (The courts have since been demolished for parking.)
And when Welch decided to close his contracting business, he went to work as superintendent of construction at the iconic Derby Lane from 1965 to 1978. It was as if M.B. Welch was woven into the fabric of the city.
Welch passed away in 1989. His name, once forgotten, has re-emerged. Amy Welch Walker continues her journey to fully understand the mark her grandfather left in the city. If you live in a 1920s house and you see someone out front comparing it to an old black-and-white photo, there’s a good chance it’s Amy, looking for Grandpa Welch’s footprints.
View a comprehensive list of buildings and the year they were built, here.
