Clark Memorial Baptist Church

Clark Memorial Baptist Church and Baptist Goodwill Center at 1909 15th Street. 1947. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

The Loft Elevated Bar + Food, 1909 15th Street, Tampa, FL. 2022. © Chip Wein

The dedication of the Clark Memorial Baptist Church in 1911 was attended by pastors from Texas and Cuba and local clergy to celebrate this church built for the Spanish-speaking people of Ybor City. The $12,000 brick structure on 15th Street was a mission, Sunday School, and a place of worship. The church served the area residents, many of them cigar workers, for decades. In 1955, the congregation moved to their new building, Ybor City Baptist Temple at 910 Columbus Drive, and listed the building for sale. Records are scarce after the church left, but looking at the structure today, a catastrophic fire most likely destroyed the original spires and the third floor.

Between the 1950s and 1980s, the Ybor historic district became depressed, and real estate values sank. In the 1980s, the theme of Ybor City began shifting to bars and clubs. In 1996, the city gave an alcohol permit to L.C. Hicks to open a 35-and-over social club here, and several bars, including Red Star, The Mission, and Flirt Nightclub, followed. In 2017, Cheezy’s Bistro and Speakeasy opened their Italian fusion restaurant on the second floor and a speakeasy-fashioned VIP room on the bottom floor. They closed two years later. Cerealholic Cafe and Bar opened here on New Year’s Eve 2020, serving children’s cereal-based menu items. By early 2022 it was losing $9000 a month. In May of 2022, the TV reality show Bar Rescue transformed it, taking away its cereal centric menu and calling it The Loft Elevated Bar + Food. They permanently closed in August 2022.

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again Vol. 2