"Razed" documentary delves into history of St. Petersburg's Gas Plant neighborhood
Decades after the Gas Plant neighborhood was swept aside, the pain lives on for its former residents.
"The first thing I want to say," William Graveley says in the opening quote of a new documentary, "is I can never forgive the City of St. Petersburg for the lie that they told us."
Why it matters:" Razed," a new film from local production studio Roundhouse Creative, delves into the history of St. Pete's Gas Plant neighborhood through the stories of Graveley and others who lived there.
It comes at a pivotal moment: The city is on the precipice of redeveloping the historically Black neighborhood into a live-work-play district with an African American history museum, affordable housing and a new baseball stadium.
Yes, but: It also comes amid a flurry of politicking that has left the future of the plan uncertain.
Flashback: Before it was replaced by Tropicana Field and its vast expanse of parking lots, the Gas Plant neighborhood was a thriving community of Black-owned homes, churches, schools and businesses during segregation and Jim Crow.
While the community was seen as blighted by white city and business leaders, former residents featured in the film tell of a close-knit neighborhood where people looked out for each other and kids roamed freely to play in Booker Creek or frolic in yards filled with fruit trees.
Looming over it all were two cylindrical towers holding the city's natural gas supply for which the neighborhood is named.
Everything changed in the 1980s, when the city took over and demolished the neighborhood, promising residents would return to a rehabilitated community with jobs, industry and affordable housing.
"They dangled that carrot, and we bought that," former resident Gwendolyn Reese, who is also credited as a producer, says in the film.
None of it happened.
Instead, the city offered up the freshly demolished 86 acres as a site for what became the Trop. City and business leaders hoped a stadium would lure a major league team to St. Pete.
Black people had been lied to before, Reese says, but what stood out was "the brazenness of it."
Zoom in: Interspersed with interviews and black-and-white flashes of old St. Pete are ominous overhead drone shots of the Trop and footage of residents pointing out where their family homes once stood.
"My house was this tree right here," says Carlos Lovett, who grew up in the neighborhood, while standing in a grassy median in the Trop's parking lot. "I made it this tree. … I needed a place to come back to."
Directors Andrew Lee and Tara Segall got the idea for the documentary while working a video booth at a Gas Plant neighborhood reunion in 2021.
They were tasked with filming residents sharing happy memories from the neighborhood, but folks kept pulling them aside, saying, "Let me tell you the real story," Lee said.
What they're saying:"That's when it became clear there's emotion tied to this history," Lee said. "We felt this deep sense of obligation to tell these stories."
"More than one person has said, 'Nobody's ever asked me what happened,'" Segall added.
The big picture: With the help of Reese, who is also president of the African American Heritage Association of St. Petersburg, filmmakers over three years talked to 20 former residents, including Mayor Ken Welch and Courageous 12 member Leon Jackson.
They also drew on historical records, newspaper archives and family photos.
Between the lines: The film doesn't wade much into the Gas Plant and Trop redevelopment project on the horizon — and that's on purpose, Lee and Segall said.
The filmmakers wanted to keep the documentary focused on preserving the history, and "maybe that insight can impact future decision-making," Lee said.
Roundhouse maintained full editorial control, they said; neither the city nor the Rays had influence over the storytelling.
What's next: The film premiers Feb. 22 at the Center for Health Equity in St. Pete. That viewing is sold out, but registration will open soon for a second showing Feb. 23.
Residents can check here for viewing updates.
The bottom line: "Can we put [the neighborhood] back together? No," former resident Russell Cato says in the film.
"But we can put the history back together."
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