Historic Florida church now a 4-bedroom $1.3 million home

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A 1928 church has been renovated into a four bedroom home, complete with a large stained glass window of Jesus.

The home in St. Petersburg, Florida, is slated for closing at $1.3 million later this week, listing agent Bryan Belcher told the Tampa Bay Times.

The home’s great room features high ceilings with the original exposed scissor trusses, and comes with a few pews, the newspaper reported.

“It’s such a unique property. As soon as you walk in through the front door into the main great room, it’s just ‘wow,’ because of how high the ceilings are,” said Belcher, who works for Coastal Properties Group.

Belcher said Bluewater Builders bought the church for $580,000 in 2018, intending to tear it down and use the lot to build new homes.

Developers instead demolished part of the structure, and got rid of the parking lot and built three homes. But they kept the original church intact, converting it into a home, and added a new saltwater pool, the newspaper reported.

“The builder put high-end finishes on it that put it over the top,” Belcher said.

The property went on the market in late March. Belcher said the first prospective buyers arrived at 9 a.m., and sent an offer within 30 minutes.

Angie Conner, who is president of the Crescent Heights Neighborhood Association, said that in an effort to save the original structure, the developer worked with members of the American Church of the Beatitudes Baptist church, as well as the neighborhood association and preservationists.

Neighbors were allowed in to see the finished product the night before it went on the market, Conner said. She sent an email blast and expected a couple dozen people to show up.

But she told the Times that a line wrapped around the block for more than an hour. Visitors included the granddaughter of the original pastor, when it was the Grace Lutheran Church.

“It was really kind of thrilling and exciting,” Conner said. “It really was the result of the neighborhood working together.”

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