ST PETERSBURG, Fla. — The 10th Street Church of God is the second oldest Black church in St. Petersburg, and it faces an uncertain future.

What You Need To Know

  • 2nd oldest black church in St. Pete has uncertain future

  • Pastor of 10th street Church of God wants to sell the church and find new facility

  • Pastor says the church needs thousands of dollars in repairs

  • St. Pete city officials want to preserve the church in one form another

The church was originally built in 1898 and is now on a local historical registry. However, it has been unused for the past three years. 

Pastor Carl Mobley, who held services there for over 20 years, says it's too dangerous to hold services in the building.

“The insurance was taken off – they dropped us because the building is not qualified to maintain the capacity of people,” Mobley said.

Termites have since ravaged the wood in the pews and water has leaked through the roof.

“I have had a termite guy come out here and he said you’re wasting your time — you can’t save this church,” Mobley said.

Mobley says that the church needs hundreds of thousands of dollars of work done but it’s a price tag that he can’t cover. He says he would like to remove the church from its historical registry and sell the church. He says he's run into pushback from city officials.

“Where were they years ago when the building needed to be repaired and we scrapped to maintain to keep the code violations off of us,” Mobley said.

City officials say they’re trying to find a solution.

Derek Kilborn, the manager for Urban Planning and Historic Preservation for St. Petersburg says they have tried to work with Mobley to secure federal and state grants and local incentives.

“The property itself does have commercial zoning so it could be adaptively reused, it could be retail sales, a restaurant, it just depends on what the congregation wants to do,” Kilborn said. 

The city would like to see the church preserved for its connection with the city and its history.

“The most important thing for the city is for the building to continue as a designated landmark and be a representation of architecture in the city and be retained to represent a period of time when the Methodist town neighborhood was primarily an African-American community,” Kilborn said.

Mobley says if someone wants to come in and fix the place, he would gladly stay in the church.