As this is written The Garden Cafeteria in St. Petersburg is being demolished. The building was designed buy St. Petersburg’s first architects and for 40 years had the restaurant shown in the postcard above. Later the building was known as The Piano Exchange. There have been efforts for years to replace this building with various projects due to it’s prime Downtown location. Right now there are no named plans for the land after it is cleared. Apparently there were structural issues, including the roof, that led to the demolition.

Click here to see photos of the building and the start of demolition from the St. Petersburg Preservation Facebook page.

Today is also a key day for the Belleview Biltmore, which is not far from this location in Belleair. The Belleair city council is having a hearing and asking for residents to come out and state their position involving the building. It’s future may depend on how that meeting goes. Swampy has been long involved & supporter of the historic Belleview Biltmore Hotel.