H.C. Smith Store

H.C. Smith Store. Built: 1915 Moved: 1988. , One Stop Shopping , Between 1900 and 1920, St. Petersburg's population soared from 1,575 to more than 14,000. This store opened in the Mound Park neighborhood to serve blossoming nearby communities like Roser Park. Shoppers came to this small store because it had it all-groceries, clothing and other necessities. From 1915 to 1955 this building had different owners and names, and for most years, thrived. By the 1950s, small stores like this struggled to compete as shoppers flocked to downtown stores or air conditioned shopping centers and later to mega malls. , Many Merchants , Customers shopped the various businesses in this building for 40 years. Known as H.C. Smith's Grocery during its early years, other merchants named it South Side Grocery, Sixth Avenue Food Shop, and Bill's Grocery. The smaller portion of the building had a separate business for some with a butcher shop and bakery and at other times was home to those who ran the grocery store. , Location, Location, Location , Fourth Street, one block east of the store, became the main north-south roadway with the opening of Gandy Bridge between St. Petersburg and Tampa in 1924. Considering that Charles Preston purchased the building in 1935 for $3,000 (a sizeable amount of money at the height of the Great Depression) this store likely received plenty of business from the increased traffic. , Caught in a Webb , By the mid 1950s, this neighborhood grocery store had outlived its time. Trends shifted to larger stores downtown, new suburban developments and new shopping patterns. A complicating factor was Webb's City. James Earl 'Doc' Webb opened a small downtown pharmacy in the early 1920s that by 1945 mushroomed into Webb's City, the "World's Most Unusual Drugstore," occupying multiple city blocks. Merchants without 'Doc's' flair could not compete.