Our History & Historic Building

St. Pete First has a rich history in our community.

For over 100 years,

St. Pete First has served, loved, and transformed lives.

Our People

As a part of St. Pete First, we have a long history in St. Petersburg. Although the building and city has changed over the years - the heart of the people has always remained the same, to grow as disciples of Jesus and show loving kindness to our community. Throughout the history of our city, we have always sought to find ways to engage our community with service, time, and resources.

Our vision is to be the heart of the city of St. Petersburg, where people are transformed into disciples by the love and grace of Jesus Christ and empowered to solve the unmet needs in our community and beyond.

Our mission: LOVE. ST. PETE.

Accounts handed down from early members and recorded in our church history tell us that a group of Methodists began meeting in homes in St. Petersburg in June of 1888. Rev. J.M. Dieffenwierth, a Clearwater delegate to the Tampa District Conference, was authorized to form a new church on their behalf in January 1889 and served as its first pastor.

In 1891, the Florida Conference sent Rev. Ira S. Patterson to reorganize the church. Under his leadership, the Methodists built their first church building near the corner of 7th Street and Central Avenue. In 1902, the church leaders accepted an offer of property on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 3rd Street North in exchange for the Central Avenue location, and church members of the time recollected that their existing building was “moved on rollers to the new site.” In 1905, the original frame building was moved to the rear of the lot and a new brick church (with much of the Gothic flavor of today’s church) was erected in its place.

Our current Gothic Revival style church building, stained glass windows and bell tower were built circa 1925 to house the growing congregation.

Design and
Architecture

Built circa 1925, the First United Methodist Church is significant for its highly artistic, academically correct use of the Gothic Revival with a strong English Gothic influence. According to the City’s Florida Site File records less than ten buildings in St. Petersburg are designed in the style and seven of these are churches dating from 1887 to 1925. The building is actually the fourth sanctuary to house the congregation and the third one to be erected on the site. Numbers two and three were constructed in 1902 and 1905 respectively, demolition being necessary to accommodate the expanding congregation.

Designed by James Baldwin, the Church is constructed of red brick which is laid in common bond. Cast concrete ornamentation is present on all facades. The roof is a steeply pitched pseudo-mansard style roof with the slopes sheathed in gray slate shingles. The main facade of the Church faces south onto Williams Park. This facade consists of three bays, the easternmost bay with its 144-ft. tall bell tower dominates the facade. The base of the tower is flanked by stairs which rise to the main entry door. Pointed arched windows separated into numerous lights by bar tracery are present above the door and at two other levels. The slightly recessed, wide central bay is gabled and completely filled by a very large gothic arched stained glass window whose complex cast stone tracery echoes the open Gothic tracery of the bell tower's carillon (bell tower with fixed bells struck by hammers). The western bay contains an entrance door flanked by buttresses that mimic the composition of the tower bay and thereby balances the composition of this facade.

The east elevation, the other important facade fronts directly onto 3rd Street North, a busy downtown street. This facade is comprised of two sections; the nave (sanctuary) of the church and a four-story office wing. The sanctuary section of the is boldly articulated by a projecting semi-hexagonal bay. The office wing is crowned by a higher and more elaborate parapet. The asymmetry of the Sunday School wing contrasts with the rhythmic bays of the nave. However, the two are integrated by the strong vertical lines of the buttresses and the heavy string course at the first floor level. The two deeply recessed planes house the mechanical equipment at the north end of this elevation.

The sanctuary is typical of the Gothic Revival style of design. It is laid out with pew seating facing the altar. Balconies form a "U" shaped ring around the upper portion of the nave facing the altar. The most impressive feature of the interior of the sanctuary is the amount of colored light flooding in through the Tiffany style glass windows.

Stained-Glass Windows

All of the windows in the sanctuary are made of leaded stained glass, manufactured in 1926, by the George Hardy Payne Studios of Paterson, New Jersey. These windows are in the Tiffany style, which incorporates multiple layers of opalescent colored glass, often faceted, with the traditional painted and fired glass. The ten windows of the east and west walls of the sanctuary on the lower level depict major events in the life and passion of Christ. The large south wall window is a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper." Click here for more information on our stained-glass windows.

Carillon

The church's lofty bell tower originally housed a ten-bell carillon, which has been increased to 15 bells. The original bells were bronze, cast by the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York, in 1926. The largest bell weighs 2,208 pounds. The basic tonality is the key of F, but an additional E-flat bell permits limited use of the key of B-flat. The original manual lever system was altered to an electronic keyboard in 1964.

Organ

On April 22, 1925, a contract was signed with Austin Pipe Organ of Hartford, Connecticut for the installation of a new 22 rank organ with 1541 pipes at a cost of $11,950.00. All pipes were placed in the Gallery Division on the fourth floor, which extends out into the front of the Sanctuary and is covered with a white filigree plaster screen. The console was located under the organ in the original choir loft, which was in the third-floor area currently used by the Chancel Organ Division. Of this original organ, 13 ranks are still being used today.

A new 3 manual Klann console and additional pipe ranks were installed in 1966, bringing the number of ranks to 27. In 1971, as part of the renovation of the Sanctuary, the choir loft was lowered and placed in front of the arch. At this time, eight ranks were added to the organ and placed in the arch behind the new grill work. In 1982, a new Klug and Schumacher Pipe Organ Company instrument was designed using most of the original Austin Organ, and 26 ranks were added on a lower level to better accompany the congregation and choir, bringing the total number of pipe ranks to 54. A new 3 manual Allen organ console was installed in 1985. When this console began to have repair issues, a 4 manual Walker Technical Company console was custom-designed and installed in 2024 to include all 54 ranks of pipes and 160 digital ranks of Walker.

Click here for more information about our organ.