Historic Trinity Lutheran Church in goes up for sale

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After more than a century in downtown St. Petersburg, Trinity Lutheran Church is up for sale.

The move does not come lightly for the congregation, which voted to put the church on the market.

The sanctuary is a designated historic landmark, and members of the community hope it will remain a church or that the building will otherwise be preserved for future generations.

“This church is incredibly beautiful. It was built in 1923 when they knew how to build a church. And they knew what beauty was. It’s like a northern church that was picked up and plopped down on a street corner in St. Pete,” said Pastor Paul Gibson.

Gibson spent years at Trinity Lutheran Church, which has stood in downtown St. Petersburg for more than a century. The congregation itself is 115 years old.

“There’s a lot of memories in here,” Gibson said.

He said some members have been grieving the decision for years.

“Some of us have been grieving that process for years because we saw the writing on the wall years ago,” he said.

The church building needs extensive work, including repairs to the roof, water damage and black mold. Gibson said the costs were too high for the congregation to cover.

“We knew we couldn’t cover that cost. So we decided then, very painfully, that we had to put it on the market,” he said.

Last year, the congregation managed to get a local historic landmark designation for the sanctuary.

The future of the building remains uncertain. With the designation, however, demolition would be difficult.

Derek Kilborn, director of the St. Petersburg Planning Department, said a request to demolish the building would have to go through a public hearing process with the city’s Planning and Preservation Commission.

“That is generally an eight-week process from application process to public hearing — and then the commission is reviewing the request against the criteria of the code to determine whether demolition is appropriate — but is very difficult,” Kilborn said.

Kilborn said the building is an important structure for the city.

“From our position, acknowledging that preservation does have many different incentives that can also work in companion with new development and new growth and that the two are complementary, and we will do what we can from our position at the city to help support that,” he said.

The congregation has faced dwindling numbers and recently merged with Hope Lutheran Church, not far from its current location.

Giving up the sanctuary is not easy, but Gibson said the move is necessary.

“The congregation can go on for decades. The congregation can continue to have a positive impact. This building’s time has come to an end, but we’re going to start a new chapter in a new home,” Gibson said.

The future is uncertain for the historic church, but the outer structure will likely be preserved.

Gibson would love to see the building continue as a church, but understands that might not happen.

He hopes whoever takes it over respects the beauty and history of the historic landmark for generations to come.