TARPON SPRINGS — A balcony that once stretched across the front of the historic W.H. Gourley Building, until it was torn off in the 1980s, is coming back.
The city’s Heritage Preservation Board unanimously granted owner Christy Howard a certificate of appropriateness to rebuild the full-width balcony at 155 E. Tarpon Ave. The project will return the downtown storefront to the look it had when it was built around 1905.
Construction is expected to start in January, after the holiday shopping rush, and wrap up within six weeks, in time for the spring season, Howard said. It caps a process that began when she first went before the board two years ago.
“I’m so proud of it and excited to see it come together — finally,” she said. “It’s been a long road.”
W.H. Gourley, a merchant and property owner who helped shape downtown Tarpon Springs in the early 1900s, built the two-part masonry vernacular commercial building, Principal Planner Caroline Lanford told board members. It originally housed a tailor and pressing shop and a grocery on the first floor, with apartments upstairs. Later tenants included a dry goods store and a men’s wear shop. Gourley opened a hardware business there in the 1920s and continued to rent out the apartments.
The building is one of the oldest contributing historic structures downtown, Lanford said. It retains its rusticated and smooth concrete block exterior, large plate-glass display windows and three recessed entrances. But after a succession of owners, its ornate balcony was removed in the 1980s, leaving a flat facade.
A vintage photo shows the original balcony running the width of the building, with rusticated block posts at street level, decorative metal balusters along the railing and simple posts holding up a metal shed roof, Lanford said.
The new design calls for five cast columns at street level, down from the seven shown in renderings by a different architect at an earlier hearing. The goal is to match the neighboring Two Frogs Brewing Co. building, Howard told the board.
“We’re just kind of trying to vibe with next door at Two Frogs,” she said. “Those choices were made very well before us, and we’re just kind of going with that flow.”
Two Frogs occupies a historic building of its own at 151 E. Tarpon Ave. Built in 1886, it housed the Old Reliable Drug Store for 80 years.
The board also approved replacing the wooden stairs at the back of the Gourley Building with a set that closely follows the original design but adds a security gate to keep nighttime trespassers off the roof.
City staff recommended approval. The certificate expires in three years if a building permit has not been issued.
“I think it’s great to get the balcony back,” board Chairwoman Cindi Tarapani said. “Thank you so much for doing that. It will make a nice addition to the street.”
Howard bought the building in May 2023. It is home to her metaphysical and holistic gift shop, Healing Hedge Witch, which is marking its fifth anniversary, and The Potionary, a tea house she added more recently. She describes the shops’ decor as “retro vintage art deco maximalist,” with tufted furniture and plenty of vintage Royal Albert china.
The second floor won’t become offices, she said. Instead, she envisions the upstairs and the balcony as community space, with a catering kitchen for events and room for workshops and meetups, including meditation and sound healing. The balcony will also give Potionary customers more room to linger.
“I understand the upstairs once had 10 apartments sharing a kitchen and bathroom,” Howard said. “It feels meaningful to bring people together there again in a different way.”
Her contractor, CRC Builders, is staging materials in advance to limit the disruption to neighboring businesses, including her own, she said.
“I think it’s going to make a huge impact, and I hope it encourages other property owners on Tarpon Avenue to make investments in their historic buildings to preserve and restore the charm that makes our downtown so unique,” Howard said.
“I love that we’re creating a new chapter in a building that has been part of downtown Tarpon Springs for so long.”