Look What We Did This Summer, Fruitland Heights! 🎉

New signs, neighborhood projects, preservation, mangoes—and a Centennial Celebration coming Nov. 21

Celebrating a Successful Centennial Summer in Fruitland Heights!

What a Centennial Summer it has been in Fruitland Heights!

As we celebrate 100 years of Fruitland Heights, our neighborhood has been busy honoring our history, beautifying our streets, bringing neighbors together, and laying the groundwork for our second century.

This summer, we restored all five of our neighborhood signs with our new Fruitland Heights logo, brought neighbors together for a successful lawn-care campaign, launched our first Alley Wide Pride project, and began the process of seeking historic recognition for our neighborhood cemetery.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered, participated, encouraged these efforts, and helped make our Centennial Summer such a success. Here’s a look at what we accomplished together:

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD SIGNS GOT A CENTENNIAL MAKEOVER

All five Fruitland Heights neighborhood signs have been restored, freshly painted, and updated with our new Fruitland Heights logo design. After years out in the Florida sun, they’re looking great again and ready to welcome people to the neighborhood for years to come.

NEIGHBORS SHOWED UP FOR OUR LAWN-CARE CAMPAIGN

Our 8-week summer lawn-care campaign "Centennial Summer Saturdays" brought neighbors together to give some extra love to properties that needed a hand. We ended the campaign with a terrific showing: six Fruitland Heights volunteers, along with Councilman Corey Givens (pictured here actually working with us!), came out to work alongside one another.

Thank you to everyone who gave their time and energy!

BUILDING CONNECTIONS FOR FRUITLAND HEIGHTS

We’ve also been working to strengthen Fruitland Heights’ connections with the people and resources that can help us accomplish even more in the years ahead.

This summer, we welcomed our Neighborhood Relations Coordinator, Jen Joern, for a tour of Fruitland Heights, where she got to see our newly restored neighborhood signs and learn more about the projects underway in our community.

We also met with Franklin Alves, President of CONA (Council of Neighborhood Associations), to talk about our neighborhood initiatives and ways Fruitland Heights can become more connected with the larger network of neighborhood associations across St. Petersburg.

And we attended a Lunch & Learn for Neighborhood Association leaders to learn more about City resources available to neighborhoods, including Mini Grants that can help support future projects and improvements.

We’re excited to keep building these relationships and bringing new resources, ideas, and opportunities back to Fruitland Heights!

BUILDING A MORE CONNECTED NEIGHBORHOOD

 

Some of our favorite Centennial Summer successes were also some of the simplest. Our Fruitland Heights WhatsApp group is giving neighbors an easy way to connect, share resources, ask questions, and help one another. Thanks to that chat, this summer, an abundance of backyard mangoes found their way to neighbors instead of going to waste, and bougainvilleas that needed to be removed found a new home right here in the neighborhood.

We also created a private neighborhood contact map to help us better understand where participating neighbors are located, strengthen our outreach, and make it easier for neighbors to connect and help one another—something that could be especially valuable during a storm or other emergency.

ALLEY WIDE PRIDE IS UNDERWAY!

We kicked off our new Alley Wide Pride campaign with our first alley, between 17th and 18th Streets and 20th and 21st Avenues South.

St. Petersburg artist Chad Mize created a fantastic series of posters especially for us, bringing some color, humor, and neighborhood pride to a space that can sometimes be overlooked.

This is just the beginning — we’d love to see Alley Wide Pride spread throughout Fruitland Heights! As we were putting up the signs, a double rainbow appeared, and we felt the universe smiling down on us!

PRESERVING OUR NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY

This summer also marked the beginning of an important new effort: seeking historic recognition and preservation for Historic Oakdale/St. Bartholomew’s Cemetery.

We held our first meeting at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church on 34th Street, the congregation that was originally located on the site where New Hope Baptist Church stands today, next to the cemetery. I met with Father Ethan, the church’s rector, and the CFO of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, which owns the cemetery—and, in a remarkable coincidence, members of the CFO’s own family are buried there. Together, we began the process of formally establishing a Friends of the Cemetery committee to raise funds and awareness, beautify and preserve the grounds, and help tell the story of the cemetery’s important place in St. Petersburg’s history. Father Ethan showed me some wonderful old photos and documents from the original church site.

And that brings us to our final big Centennial event...

SAVE THE DATE — FRUITLAND HEIGHTS CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION!

Saturday, November 21 | 5:30-7:00 PMHistoric Oakdale/St. Bartholomew’s CemeteryNext to New Hope Baptist Church

Join us for a special evening celebrating 100 years of Fruitland Heights and the official kickoff of our Historic Preservation Committee.

We’ll gather at dusk in this remarkable historic place for live period music, historical storytelling, refreshments, and community as we celebrate where Fruitland Heights has been — and where we’re going next.

Please save the date! More details are coming soon.

As our Centennial year begins to draw to a close, we want to congratulate Fruitland Heights and everyone who calls it home on 100 years!

We’re proud of what we accomplished together this summer, but even more excited about what comes next. Here’s to lifting up our neighborhood, celebrating its residents, preserving its history, and carrying that pride with us as Fruitland Heights begins its second century.

Happy 100th, Fruitland Heights!