Council designates Coquina Rock entrance at Pasadena Estates as local historic landmark

City Council unanimously approved a city-initiated ordinance Jan. 23 to designate the Coquina Rock entrance to the Bear Creek Golf and Country Club section of Pasadena Estates as a local historic landmark and to add the brick-and-stone entrance walls to the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places.

Kelly Perkins, city historic preservationist, presented the nomination and described the entrance walls’ 1924 construction by developer Jack Taylor as part of a speculative subdivision and promotion for a golf-course neighborhood. Perkins said the walls meet multiple Register criteria for significance in architecture and association with an important local developer and found that, despite some historic alterations and loss of original pedestrian archways, the walls retain sufficient integrity and character-defining features to merit landmark status.

Staff noted outreach to the owners; one owner supplied a written letter supporting designation and staff reported a conversation with the other property owner who expressed initial concern but supported designation once clarified that the nomination covered the walls only. Council considered staff’s analysis of criteria and factors of integrity and then voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance and add the walls to the local register.

Perkins said most future exterior changes to the landmarked elements would be processed through the city’s certificate-of-appropriateness (COA) review for historic properties; routine maintenance would continue to be allowed under code but larger alterations that affect the wall’s character-defining features would require review. The designation is effective immediately as of the council vote.