Post by account_disabled on Feb 17, 2024 8:53:45 GMT
TAMPA – More than a century ago, a house was built from stones dredged from the Hillsborough River. Located at 712 S. Edison Ave. and now one of the buildings that make up the Hyde Park Historic District, the house is one of two buildings made from those rocks. St. James House of Prayer Episcopal Church at 2708 N. Central Ave. is the other. The church has maintained its structure. The previous owners of the house did not do this. But the home's restoration began thanks to 712 S. Edison Ave. LLC, which purchased it in 2022 and, according to state records, is overseen by Drew Peloubet. The foundation of the two-story, 3,300-square-foot home needs to be shored up. It needs a new roof, not made of stone. The wooden floor on the first floor, which sags under the weight of a single person, will be replaced. And, most importantly, the mortar will be repaired to prevent the home's unique stones from shifting. "It needs to be saved," said Lane Mari, vice president of GM Construction, which is restoring the house that will be sold later this year. “They don't make them like that anymore.” The scarcity of the rock used is what is so difficult to replicate.
It would be almost impossible to replicate” the house and church, said Sam Upchurch, who previously chaired the Department of Geology at the University of South Florida. He said it would be difficult to find similar rocks. The exterior of a historic home made from stones dredged from the Hillsborough River in Tampa more than a century ago, photographed Jan. 18, 2024 (Tampa Bay Times). A year ago, when St. James House of Prayer Episcopal America Mobile Number List Church celebrated the centennial of its construction, congregation leaders were curious about what type of stone was used in the construction. Mari also wanted to know about the house. All they had to do was ask Upchurch, who once studied the church's construction as part of the application for its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The rocks, he said, are known as chert and are composed of the mineral quartz. Native Americans once used flint as tools and weapons and today for jewelry and replica arrowheads. "Chert is everywhere in Central Florida," said Roger Dawson, project manager at Environmental Consulting & Technology. In Florida, flint “originates from the shells of sea creatures that covered the peninsula while underwater.” Today, flint is most common in phosphate mining areas.
Judson's Live brings a new musical experience to the Dr. Phillips Center But the flint extracted from the mining quarries would probably be cream-colored and unmarked, while the rocks that make up the house and church are shades of brown, gray and white. This is because the flint mined today “has not been eroded or washed away by the river for many years,” Upchurch said. The colors depend on the minerals in the rocks. According to a 1921 Tampa Tribune article announcing the completion of the Hyde Park house, it was “the only building in Tampa or anywhere else, so far as can be determined, that is composed of that material. …The bungalow is a work of art.” The developer, former Tampa City Council member HP Kennedy, acquired “sufficient stone” near his farmhouse on Harney Road because of “recent flooding,” the article says. When the high waters receded, Dawson said, a lot of rocks that had been just beneath the sand probably became exposed. “Over the years, driving down Columbus Avenue, I have always been intrigued by the church and have often wondered where the builder was able to compile so much of this unusual building material.” Kennedy also allowed the church to dredge rocks near his house for construction. It was designed to imitate British churches of the Middle Ages.
It would be almost impossible to replicate” the house and church, said Sam Upchurch, who previously chaired the Department of Geology at the University of South Florida. He said it would be difficult to find similar rocks. The exterior of a historic home made from stones dredged from the Hillsborough River in Tampa more than a century ago, photographed Jan. 18, 2024 (Tampa Bay Times). A year ago, when St. James House of Prayer Episcopal America Mobile Number List Church celebrated the centennial of its construction, congregation leaders were curious about what type of stone was used in the construction. Mari also wanted to know about the house. All they had to do was ask Upchurch, who once studied the church's construction as part of the application for its listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The rocks, he said, are known as chert and are composed of the mineral quartz. Native Americans once used flint as tools and weapons and today for jewelry and replica arrowheads. "Chert is everywhere in Central Florida," said Roger Dawson, project manager at Environmental Consulting & Technology. In Florida, flint “originates from the shells of sea creatures that covered the peninsula while underwater.” Today, flint is most common in phosphate mining areas.
Judson's Live brings a new musical experience to the Dr. Phillips Center But the flint extracted from the mining quarries would probably be cream-colored and unmarked, while the rocks that make up the house and church are shades of brown, gray and white. This is because the flint mined today “has not been eroded or washed away by the river for many years,” Upchurch said. The colors depend on the minerals in the rocks. According to a 1921 Tampa Tribune article announcing the completion of the Hyde Park house, it was “the only building in Tampa or anywhere else, so far as can be determined, that is composed of that material. …The bungalow is a work of art.” The developer, former Tampa City Council member HP Kennedy, acquired “sufficient stone” near his farmhouse on Harney Road because of “recent flooding,” the article says. When the high waters receded, Dawson said, a lot of rocks that had been just beneath the sand probably became exposed. “Over the years, driving down Columbus Avenue, I have always been intrigued by the church and have often wondered where the builder was able to compile so much of this unusual building material.” Kennedy also allowed the church to dredge rocks near his house for construction. It was designed to imitate British churches of the Middle Ages.