THE CHURCH THAT FLOATED ACROSS THE HILLSBOROUGH RIVER
Clockwise from upper left:  2004, dedication day Feb. 22, 1948, the header of the weekly column by the base Chaplain in Drew Field's newspaper, "Drew Echoes", 1943, the congregation in 1954, vacant in approx 2006.

No, it wasn't a modern day miracle.  This building was one of the chapels located at Drew Field back in the mid 1940s.  In 1946, Drew Field was inactivated by the Army, and turned over to the Federal government.  In 1947, workers uprooted the chapel's framing and arches, carted it east along Buffalo Avenue, now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and floated it across the Hillsborough River because no bridge stood nearby at the time.  It was placed in Riverside Heights at the present intersection of Kentucky and Oakdale Avenues and became the Tampa Primitive Baptist Church, dedicated on Feb. 22, 1948.  The congregation thrived for many years, but dwindling membership eventually led to its demise.  See a 2004 St. Pete Times article about the hard times just before this church closed.