A carved axe-handle; a southside wood yard; churches of fellowship; businesses of fellowship; a promise to a thriving, Black community; the Historic Gas Plant District. Of this list, only the axe handle remains.
St. Pete Mayor Kenneth Welch keeps that axe handle in his study – a reminder of the wood yard he worked as a boy under the watchful eye of his grandfather, Flagmon Welch. The wood yard, along with the churches, businesses and homes of the Gas Plant District, were relinquished on the grounds that a promise would be kept.
The promise: jobs, opportunities and development for the displaced Black community…