Black history museum would be built in Tampa historic church

The Tampa Housing Authority and the Tampa Bay History Center announced on Monday a joint effort to curate the first Black history museum in Tampa.

The museum would be located at the former St. James Episcopal Church, which has been restored to its historic structural origins, in the Encore neighborhood.

Though the exhibits are still in the works, program director Ashley Morrow and Tampa Bay History Center staff will be including a wide range of topics, said Fred Hearns, the organization’s curator of Black history. There will be accounts of Black music, churches, neighborhoods, food and fashion throughout the centuries in Tampa, with a special focus on the historically Black neighborhood, businesses and cultural gathering places along Central Avenue.

“There will be something for everyone,” Hearns said. “There is so much Florida history that we have yet to explore.”

Displays will include both artifacts in possession of the Tampa Bay History Center and oral histories collected from Tampa residents. The museum will take about 18 months to open, according to History Center CEO C.J. Roberts. In the meantime, he and Hearns encourage Black residents to come and speak with them about what they would like to see in the museum, he said.

The Tampa Housing Authority took the lead in efforts to restore the building the museum is located in. The most recent use of the building was as a medical clinic, and the organization took pains to reconstruct its original appearance from when it was built in 1921. In 1895, an older structure at the location served as a refuge for Bahamian and Afro-Cuban immigrants, said state Rep. Dianne Hart (D-Tampa).

“St. James has served as a cornerstone for this historic neighborhood,” Hart said. “I think about their stories, and how oftentimes their struggles are romanticized, or forgotten altogether.”

The museum will preserve certain aspects of the structure as the exhibits are added, said Leroy Moore, the Housing Authority’s chief operating officer. Overall, the organization spent about $2 million on restoration. The money came from federal grants and one local grant from the Historic Preservation Society.

Mayor Jane Castor, County Commissioner Gwen Myers and Tampa City Council member Gwen Henderson were all in attendance Monday. Henderson said the building had personal significance to her. After going through her family records, she discovered that her own father had slept in a corner of the St. James church before he served in the Korean War.

“This area — the Scrub, Central Avenue — is really important because it is embedded into the family history of formerly enslaved people,” Henderson said. “Now we are able to capture just how great this space is.”