Former Five and Dime Store in Saint Petersburg FL

S.H. Kress and Company Building, St. Petersburg Florida

Date added: July 18, 2024

String course detail, north elevation (2000)

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The five and dime store, conceived by F.W. Woolworth in 1879, was a concept that took hold of the American collective interest like no other retailing enterprise before it. The Woolworth chain was soon joined by J.G. McCrory's, S.S. Kresge's and S.H. Kress & Co. The five and dimes, such as Kress, were focal points of much social activity. People looked forward to going downtown to shop in these stores, meet with friends, and share a meal at the lunch counters which many of the stores featured. These stores, like the Kress Building in St. Petersburg, were constructed on the main streets of towns from coast to coast, where they drew large numbers of people to the downtown area to shop." Each store was named for its founder, with the name of the company spelled out in gilt letters on long red signs across the facades of the buildings. Kress store opened its first five and dime store in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, in 1896. Over the next four years, Kress opened ten more stores.

The St. Petersburg Kress store was constructed in 1927, during the declining years of the Florida Land Boom. Although the financial condition of the area was on a downswing, the considerable wealth and resources of the Kress company allowed for such grand-scale construction to proceed with little difficulty. Once it opened, the business thrived due to the rapid increase in St. Petersburg's population.

The national head of the Kress architectural division, E.E. Worth, praised the quality of the workmanship of the St. Petersburg Kress store as "the best I have ever seen." He announced, "I do not see how it could be made any finer by human hands." Local building experts agreed that the Kress building was one of the most substantial and attractive pieces of construction in St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg Kress store was constructed by G.A. Miller, a Tampa resident and prominent local builder at the time, following a design by E. J. T. Hoffmann, a New York City architect. The lasting quality of Miller's construction efforts is reflected by two other local buildings that he constructed, the Kress Store and the Floridan Hotel, both in Tampa.

When construction of the St. Petersburg Kress Five and Dime Store was completed, Liggett's Drug Store moved from the 300 block of Central Avenue to occupy the first floor of the western portion of the building. "Liggett's Drug Store" signs ran the length of the western facade, as well as along the western portion of the south elevation of the building. The remainder of the building was used by S.H. Kress & Co. for its five and dime store operation. In the late 1940s, Kress expanded, converting Liggett's space to its own use.

The St. Petersburg Kress store ceased operation as a five and dime store in 1980 or 1981. The building was vacant until 1982, when the City of St. Petersburg Municipal Services began extensive renovations of the interior and moved its offices into the building. The building became vacant once more in 1996, when the city moved its offices. That year, the Kress Building was purchased by its current owner, who immediately embarked on an aggressive plan of restoration to restore the building's original beauty. Local authorities designated the St. Petersburg Kress Building as a historic landmark later that year.

Fewer than half of the 264 Kress stores built during Samuel H. Kress's lifetime still stand. The majority of them have been converted to a variety of uses. But some, like the St. Petersburg store, have served as the focus of downtown revitalization projects.

The St. Petersburg Kress Building is a classically-inspired structure that has a Beaux Arts style influence. The Beaux Arts style became popular in nineteenth century Europe, deriving from the Ecole des Beaux Arts, an eminent school of architecture located in Paris, France. American architects such as Richard Morris Hunt and Henry Hobson Richardson who attended the illustrious school brought the style back to the states. By the end of the century followers of the Beaux Arts style dominated the American architectural profession. Common features of the style are coupled columns, long flights of steps, and arched and linteled openings. Figure sculpture, another common feature of the style, appears more in the Beaux Arts style than in any other style, and is often used to add interest to the skyline.

Unlike the owners of other chain stores, Kress preferred to build his own stores rather than to lease them, and their appearance distinguished them from those of his competitors. The early Kress stores were symmetrical buildings constructed of pale yellow brick trimmed in white. They also had curved display windows which led to recessed entrances. All Kress stores contained two selling floors on the lower levels and warehouses and office space above. Many of the building designs also featured the Kress coat of arms.

Because of his keen interest in the design of his stores, Kress established an architecture division at his New York headquarters in 1900. He allowed no architectural plans to leave these headquarters without his approval. Kress did not hesitate to invest considerable amounts of money in the design of his buildings, and some were quite elaborate. These included a Spanish-inspired building in Tampa, Florida; a Greek temple storefront in Montgomery, Alabama; buildings resembling castles in Wichita and Emporia, Kansas; and a store resembling an English country house in Lakeland, Florida. The designs of some of his buildings reflect his interest in Medieval and Renaissance art.

Out of all of the Kress buildings, it was the St. Petersburg Kress store that the head of the Kress architectural division recognized as the best store in the chain. Its decorative ornamentation, particularly in the parapet, is reflected today in only a few remaining buildings from the time the Kress Building was constructed. The building is a tribute to that era, as well as a significant example of the use of the Beaux Arts style in local architecture during the late 1920s.

Typical of the basic design of Kress buildings, the St. Petersburg store employs a tripartite system of articulation which had come into vogue in the 1890s. This consisted of dividing the building into distinct treatments for the lower story, the intermediate stories and the uppermost story. The principal elevations of the lower story of the St. Petersburg Kess Building are nearly entirely glazed, and feature tall windows with fixed glass transoms. The intermediate three stories are faced in terra cotta and are articulated by decorative spandrels. Above, a dentiled cornice, topped by a parapet wall with pairs of urns, reflects the influence of the Beaux Arts style.

St. Petersburg History

Because of inadequate transportation, the settlement of St. Petersburg was slow until the coming of the railroad in 1888. The men chiefly responsible for constructing the railroad and laying the foundations of the city of St. Petersburg were John Constantine Williams from Detroit and Peter Demens, a Russian immigrant who named the settlement after the city of his homeland. Williams owned considerable acreage on the lower Pinellas County peninsula on which he was determined to develop a city, and Demens was instrumental in organizing the Orange Belt Railroad Company, which would provide transportation to the settlement. The railroad company, however, incurred enormous debts in constructing the line, and in 1895, it was sold to Henry Bradley Plant and renamed the Sanford and St. Petersburg Railroad. Growth quickly followed the coming of the railroad, and new towns were established on the Pinellas peninsula. Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Ozana, Dunedin, Clearwater, Largo, Safety Harbor and St. Petersburg were among the more significant of the new and expanding communities. The development of St. Petersburg was concentrated near the waterfront on Tampa Bay. The community reached a population of about 3,000 by the beginning of the 20^th Century and was officially incorporated as a city in 1903.

Following World War I, St. Petersburg and the rest of Florida experienced a dynamic period of economic growth and population expansion known as the Florida Land Boom. This was a time when the country as a whole enjoyed material prosperity and had the time and the means for travel. During the war, the nation's keen interest in Florida made businessmen and developers aware of opportunities for easy fortunes through land speculation. Promotional literature from that era advertised Florida as a "tropical paradise." The increasing popularity and availability of the automobile also drew tourists to the area in numbers never before seen by the state.

The 1920s saw the development of a statewide system of public highways and roads, managed by the state road department. From less than 748 miles of state roads completed or underway in 1920, the system grew to 3,254 miles by 1930. Such development facilitated travel and promoted a land boom throughout the state, starting in Miami and Coral Gables in 1925, and followed by Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Tampa and St. Petersburg. Florida's population rose from just under one million people in 1920 to 1,263,540 in 1925 and to 1,468,211, by 1930.

But such expansion was not to last. In 1925, about the same time that the land buying fever had reached its height, the boom began to decline. Two devastating hurricanes brought Florida into the Great Depression ahead of the rest of the country, as did the failure of local governments to realize the folly of financing rapid growth with public bonds that could not be supported by the existing system of taxation. Too many speculative real estate projects outpaced the demand for occupancy, and the assessed value of real estate in Florida dropped from $623,000,000 to $441,000,000 between 1926 and 1930.

Building Description

The Kress Building is located at 475 Central Avenue, in the central business district of St. Petersburg, Florida. The building was constructed in 1927 by local building contractor G.A. Miller according to plans prepared by the architectural division of S.H. Kress and Company. The rectangular, flat-roofed building has five floor levels (including a mezzanine) plus a basement that extends beyond the property line underneath the sidewalk. It is of steel frame construction veneered with brick, terra cotta and decorative marble. The building's decorative ornamentation reflects the influence of the Beaux Arts style. The interior has been extensively altered from its original use; however, it is in the process of being restored to an appearance more consistent with its historic function.

The Kress Building occupies lots 11 and 12 of Block 27 of the Revised Map of St. Petersburg, on the northeast corner of the intersection of Central Avenue and Fifth Street North. The building's main entry is located on Central Avenue, with a second entry located on Fifth Street North. It is abutted on the east by a two-story building, and on the north by a 20-foot utility alley. Directly to the north of the alley is a 35-space parking lot, owned by the Christ United Methodist Church, which is located directly across First Avenue North. Central Avenue is the main street of downtown St. Petersburg today, as it was in 1927. It is lined with a mix of multi-story office buildings, retail shops, and restaurants. The Kress Building is located in the heart of this area. The building is in good condition and is one of a number of buildings that are being, or recently have been, restored or renovated as part of the revitalization of the downtown St. Petersburg area.

The Kress Building appears today much as it did when it opened for business in 1927 as the Kress Five and Dime Store. The building is of masonry construction with a spread footing foundation. The first floor is fairly simple in design. The main entrance on the south elevation consists of two large glass doors flanked by terra cotta piers and a bank of tall windows. Multi-light transom windows sit above the windows, as well as above the entry doors. There is a border of aluminum panels separating the transom windows from the ground floor windows. Just below the ground floor windows, running the length of the south and west elevations, are marble panels.

The building's principal elevations are its south and west facades. Here, the first story and mezzanine level (the presence of which is not reflected on the exterior) are separated from the upper stories by a decorative string course. The lower portion of the string course is detailed by an acanthus leaf pattern. The building's upper three stories are veneered in parchment-colored terra cotta with decorative ornamentation reflecting the influence of the Beaux Arts style. These stories are divided into five bays by vertical elements. Windows are double hung sash, one over one. Decorative recessed panels appear between the second, third, and fourth floors. Above the fourth floor is a classically dentiled cornice with an egg and dart molding in the Beaux Arts style. A parapet wall above, topped by decorative urns and scroll brackets, also displays influence of the Beaux Arts style. The name "KRESS" appears in the center of the parapet on the building's south and west elevations.

The building's west elevation is similar to the south facade but contains a smaller entrance at the north end of the building. The upper three floors are divided into eight bays by vertical elements similar to those found on the south facade. The building's north elevation is a blank red brick wall with a sign at the parapet in white lettering reading "5 - 10 - 25 CENTS STORE". Twelve double hung windows pierce this elevation. The roofline here steps down in two locations from west to east as a parapet wall. The east elevation of the building also consists of a blank brick wall which it shares with an adjacent building to the east.

The main entrance of the building leads into a lobby which opens into an open space with a mezzanine level and a stairwell leading to the basement. The basement extends beyond the property line and underneath the sidewalk, a feature common among structures built in the 1920s. The mezzanine extends out over the lobby with full size windows in offices overlooking this space. There is a brass handrail in both the mezzanine and the stairwell from the lobby area into the basement. Two elevator doors display a graceful floral-like pattern. Ceilings are at varying heights throughout the building.

During the 1983 renovation of the building, operational multi-light transom windows, which paneling had covered some time before were replaced with new non-operational multi-light transoms. A vertical "KRESS" sign, which was previously attached on brackets to the front of the south facade of the building, was also removed. On the interior most ceilings have been dropped and contemporary finishes and walls obscure original materials and spaces. The original wood floors throughout the building's upper three floors, however, have been restored to their original appearance.