Tampa Heights  ·  est 1900

A new season
on Palm Avenue.

This historic Tampa church is being replanted, and you are invited. First public gathering: Sunday — January 31, 2027 — at Brewster Technical College.

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First public gathering  ·  Sun, Jan 31, 2027

Coming up · Upcoming dates

The next 30 days.

— days to January 31
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    Where we'll meet

    We're starting in a school, and that's on purpose.

    On January 31 we'll gather at Brewster Technical College — 2222 N. Tampa Street, about three blocks from the historic Palm Avenue building.

    Why not in the historic building you may ask? Idlewild (our sending church) officially received it in 2026, and it matters to us enormously. But getting a hundred-year-old sanctuary ready to hold people again is the work of months and years, not days or weeks.

    So we're not waiting on a building to be a church. We start in January, in the neighborhood, in a room down the street — and we'll work toward that sanctuary together.

    Come with us

    CORE TEAM

    Make History.

    Are you in? Want to serve?

    Just attending? Not sure?

    Either way - we can help!

    Complete the form below so we can partner with you as we prepare for this historic replant.

    Where are you?

    Goes straight to the replant team. Nothing shared, nothing sold.

    Updates

    Our story

    126 years, and it isn't finished.

    Palm Avenue Baptist Church was organized on February 1, 1900 — seventy-six people who walked out of First Baptist Tampa to start something on the corner of Florida and Palm. They met in a house. Then a tent. Then, in 1913, a building they paid off free of debt.

    A fire closed the sanctuary in the 1980s. The congregation didn't close with it — they moved into the fellowship hall and kept meeting there for the next forty years, smaller but faithful, through decades when it would have been easier to lock the doors.

    In 2026, Idlewild Baptist Church received the property — not to preserve a building, but to stand with the church that is still here and help it grow. That's the work we're starting in January.

    We owe this moment to the people who kept Palm Avenue meeting all those years. This isn't a new church. It's the same one — and we're joining it.

    Congregation crowding the front steps of Palm Avenue Baptist Church, mid-century
    Sunday morning, Palm Avenue  ·  c. 1955
    A baptistry that has been dry for forty years will be filled with water.

    From the announcement to Idlewild  ·  August 2026

    Watch Now

    The baptistry was dry, but the church never was — they kept meeting in the fellowship hall the whole time. We believe that day is coming. It won't be January — restoring that sanctuary will take years. So we start down the street, and we walk toward it together.

    1900 — 2027

    The long version, briefly.

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    1900

    Seventy-six people

    Organized February 1. Seventy-six members left First Baptist Tampa and met in a house on the corner of Florida and Palm.

    Palm Avenue, 1900
    1909

    A tent, $225

    The old house of worship was sold and moved off the lot. A tent went up at Florida and Amelia while they built.

    1913

    Free of debt

    The walls of the main auditorium went up, and the building was finished — paid off, free of debt, with help from the Home Mission Board.

    1955

    Our Program of Progress

    A full house. Three front doors, Sunday best, and a line down the steps every week.

    Palm Avenue, 1955
    1980s

    The fire, and what came after

    A fire closed the sanctuary. The congregation didn't stop. They moved into the fellowship hall and kept meeting there — Sunday after Sunday, for the next forty years.

    Palm Avenue, 1980s
    Four decades

    They never closed

    Smaller, but still gathering. Forty years of Sunday mornings, funerals, potlucks and prayer in the fellowship hall — held by people who would not let Palm Avenue go dark.

    2026

    Received

    Idlewild receives the property, with final approval in August. Most people thought the transfer was impossible.

    Next
    2027

    A new season begins

    First public gathering Sunday, January 31, at Brewster Technical College — three blocks from the old building, and one day shy of 126 years to the date.

    Someday

    Back on Palm Avenue

    Restoring the sanctuary will take years. We're not waiting on it to be a church — but we are working toward the day we walk up those steps.

    Over 126 years of serving Jesus
    and serving Tampa.

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