Everybody knows about the downtown apartment towers and the younger demographics, but how has St. Petersburg life changed in the eyes of long-term residents?
C.W. and Hazel Bragg (no relation to the writer) raised four sons and seven daughters north of downtown in the late 1930s through the ‘60’s. C.W. owned Bragg’s Chicken Market in Central Avenue’s 600 Block in the ‘50s.
Photos courtesy of the Bragg family.
Their sprawling house on 35th Avenue N, in the Five Points neighborhood, was demolished for new construction in October. And the sign on the façade of the long-defunct market was finally painted over early this year when a new restaurant opened at 656 Central Ave. Wesley and Larry Bragg and their sister, Joan, and her husband, Ed Parsley, shared memories of St. Pete.
Back in The Day
C.W. moved to St. Petersburg from his native Georgia in 1938. He managed Margaret Ann (Winn-Dixie predecessor) grocery stores before and after operating his own market for three years. He golfed at the Sunset (now Vinoy) Club and bet the greyhounds at Derby Lane. Hazel and their kids faithfully attended the old First Baptist Church across from Williams Park downtown.
Suburban Five Points expanded rapidly in the ‘50s post-war boom. The Bragg homestead was expanded from two to five bedrooms to accommodate the fast-growing family. “We came out way better than buying another house,” C.W. said in a newspaper report.
The market’s largest customer was Webb’s City. Doc Webb’s iconic forerunner to shopping centers nearby on Second Avenue S would purchase as many crates of Ruskin tomatoes as the Bragg boys could pick. Wesley and Larry worked at the market before and after junior high school at nearby Mirror Lake, and then at Northeast High School.
Larry frequented Central Avenue movie houses including the State Theatre, fished at Coffee Pot Bayou and attended the Festival of States parade each spring. Wesley remembers drag races in the Tyrone area, the opening of the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge, and chassis-scraping rides over Thrill Hill, the small but steep bridge above Salt Creek on Third Street S.
Ed grew up on North Shore Drive, the son of a real estate developer. As a youngster, he brought lemonade to World War iI troops based at the Vinoy Hotel as they trained in the park. An airplane enthusiast who raced model planes on wires, he identified combat aircraft from then MacDill Field flying overhead. Later, he bought the arcade at 689 Central Avenue and managed 50 downtown storefronts, including the Crislip Arcade.
In many ways, St. Petersburg was an idyllic place to live in the ‘50s. Fishermen in the area were rarely skunked, and doors seldom were locked. But the city also was still racially segregated, including the schools, beaches, lunch counters and even the iconic green benches along Central Avenue.
The Current Scene
Today’s 600 Block in the Central Arts District is described as the “coolest block in St. Petersburg” by the state’s tourism website. The boutiques, restaurants, murals and sidewalks shaded by live oaks attract a crowd, including many from the large new nearby apartment complexes.
The block’s low-rise, 1920’s era buildings have been well-preserved in their original dimensions. The Brass Bowl restaurant occupies Bragg’s Chicken Market’s former space. Several newly re-opened shops on the block’s south side feature the original hexagonal brick floors. Ed Parsley’s former building, the Green Richman Arcade, is an example of adaptive reuse of an old building with shared-space open offices.
The Crislip Arcade with its open corridor of small shops was saved from demolition a decade ago by Preserve the ‘Burg, the city and investors. The Beaux-Arts State Theatre is being extensively remodeled as a venue and lounge. The retouched old Sealtest Ice Cream sign above the new Central Melt sandwich shop draws many nostalgic older customers.
The St. Petersburg City Council recently approved a storefront conservation plan limiting larger storefronts to preserve sense of place on Central Avenue. The plan will continue to be reviewed as developers request more flexibility. “Conditions are excellent for business in the 600 Block area, but overregulation could stifle continued improvements,” says Jon Reno La Budde, a commercial Realtor representing 72 listings in the area.
Five Points, west of the El Cap restaurant on Fourth Street N, is still dominated by 1950s frame houses, although they are now frequently being replaced with large new models due to rising real estate values with the proximity to Downtown. The Bragg lot is expected to be the site of two new homes.
Wesley Bragg followed in C.W.’s footsteps with a career in grocery market management, primarily with Kash n’ Karry. He lives in northern St. Petersburg. Larry, a career Army man (“It beat picking tomatoes,” he says) and Vietnam War veteran, lives a couple of blocks away from where they grew up.
Joan and Ed Parsley live in the Snell Isle home they built 52 years. Their two sons (among C.W. and Hazel’s 40 grandchildren and 74 great-grandchildren) are builders who have continued the three generations of Parsleys active in St. Petersburg real estate since 1927. Joan, a nurse educated at St. Petersburg College, says, “I love St. Petersburg, although it has changed so much it sometimes seems foreign to me.”
Of course, some things have changed more than others. Just the façade of the downtown First Baptist Church is preserved. 2020 will be the 95th and last year of greyhound racing at Derby Lane. Five Points continues to evolve. But the old buildings of the 500 Block thrive. And Thrill Hill is still the town’s biggest speed bump.
