TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. A full-width balcony is coming back to the front of the historic W.H. Gourley Building, restoring a feature that disappeared when it was removed in the 1980s.
The city’s Heritage Preservation Board voted unanimously to grant owner Christy Howard a certificate of appropriateness for the rebuild at 155 E. Tarpon Ave. The goal is to return the downtown storefront to its early 1900s look. Howard told the board construction starts in January, after the holiday shopping rush, and the work runs about six weeks.
City Principal Planner Caroline Lanford described the property as a two-part masonry vernacular commercial building built around 1905 by merchant and property owner W.H. Gourley. Lanford said it is one of the oldest contributing historic structures downtown, and it still shows its rusticated and smooth concrete block exterior, large plate-glass display windows, and three recessed entrances.
Historic photos show the original balcony spanning the width of the building, with rusticated block posts at street level, decorative metal balusters, and simple posts supporting a metal shed roof, Lanford said. The approved design uses five cast columns at street level, a revision from earlier renderings that showed seven. Howard told the board the updated approach aligns with the neighboring building at 151 E. Tarpon Ave., home to Two Frogs Brewing Co., a historic structure built in 1886.
The board also approved a related change at the rear of the building: replacing the wooden stairs with a set that follows the original design while adding a security gate to keep people off the roof at night. The certificate expires in three years if a building permit is not issued.
For mason contractors and restoration teams, the timeline in Tarpon Springs is a reminder that historic masonry work runs through public review, revised renderings, and coordination with neighboring facades. Howard said her contractor, CRC Builders, is staging materials in advance to limit disruption to nearby businesses.
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