{"id":276790,"date":"2026-05-19T16:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276790\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T16:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:15:08","slug":"former-council-member-honored-for-restoration-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/276790\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Council member honored for restoration project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert Blackmon, who served on the St. Petersburg City Council from 2020 to 2022, is also a local real estate developer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blackmon and his family were behind the restoration and rehabilitation of the former Standard Oil station, at the corner of 4th Street S. and 24th Avenue, in St. Petersburg\u2019s Harbordale neighborhood. It is now occupied by Pete\u2019s Bagels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project was honored by the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation<\/a> May 14 at the\u00a0Florida Preservation Awards during the organization\u2019s Preserve Florida 2026 conference in St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

A nonprofit founded in 1978, the Trust is dedicated to protecting the state\u2019s history and heritage. The initiative received a \u201cRestoration, Rehabilitation or Adaptive Use\u201d award.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s humbling,\u201d Blackmon explained. \u201cWe\u2019re so thankful that the Trust would honor something like this. It just goes to show how important these preservation projects are to neighborhoods. One of things I think is so cool is that Harbordale residents can now say that they have a state award-winning historical building right in their neighborhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Robert Blackmon<\/p>\n

The building was one of the first gas stations<\/a> in St. Petersburg. It opened in 1926 and remained in business until 1962.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to nonprofit Preserve the \u2018Burg, which advocates for St. Petersburg\u2019s history<\/a>, the building is the southernmost Standard Oil station in the U.S. The renovation was honored at the organization\u2019s Preservation Awards <\/a>in May 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blackmon bought and began rehabilitation efforts on the deteriorated property in 2019. The cost was in a high six figure range.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat attracted me to the project was displeasure with conditions on 4th Street S. in particular,\u201d he said. \u201cI lived in Lakewood Terrace and Coquina Key. So, I would pass by that site every day for 10 years. It was in bad shape as far as I can remember.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

This inspired Blackmon to explore the property\u2019s history. After conducting research in the City\u2019s archives, he learned that the building was a Standard Oil station.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Historical documentation was used to guide the project. The original hipped roof was reconstructed, new windows were installed and the brickwork was restored.\u00a0In May 2023, the St. Petersburg City Council approved the restoration <\/a>effort and a local historic landmark designation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen so much growth in our area, which is a good thing in a lot of ways,\u201d Blackmon explained. \u201cBut, you have to have growth that\u2019s also heritage and preservation minded or else we\u2019re going to end up looking like Anytown U.S.A.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He added that there\u2019s an economical benefit to restoring historical sites. People often travel to different locations to \u201csee unique places\u201d that \u201ctell the story of our past.\u201d For example, Blackmon learned that some individuals like to visit old gas stations around the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Renovations included reconstructing the roof, installing new windows and restoring the brickwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Standard Oil station was chosen for the 2026 11 to Save list because it\u2019s one of St. Petersburg\u2019s earliest auto-related landmarks, and the Blackmon family\u2019s work has helped protect and revitalize it,\u201d Florida Trust for Historic Preservation program manager Larry Crumbie said in a statement prepared for the Catalyst. \u201cThe project was honored for saving a significant historic resource and showing how preservation can keep a place\u2019s story alive for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackmon and his family faced many challenges during the effort. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed the process. Permitting and zoning also took considerable time because the site was no longer zoned for commercial use.\u00a0\u201cThe City told us we could only make it a house,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Eventually, the St. Petersburg government and Blackmon formed an agreement where \u201cwe could make it commercial if we got it designated historic.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blackmon added that City staff members, including Derek Kilborn and Kelly Perkins and Preserve the \u2018Burg executive director Emanuel Leto, played an instrumental role in the project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of other buildings throughout the city that are historic that people may not know are historic,\u201d he said. \u201cIf everybody who is involved in the real estate or renovation trade did one of these projects in their life, we could really have a booming preservation community in the city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert Blackmon, who served on the St. Petersburg City Council from 2020 to 2022, is also a local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-276790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}