The Haunting of Comfort Station One

Off an old cobblestone street, surrounded by palm trees and the bay, lies a beautiful round, brick structure. The windows are adorned with beautiful metal detail and even the signage is somewhat romantic, reading “Women” on one side and “Men” on the other. It is a beautiful thing, mainly because this stunning structure is actually a bathroom.

While the outside resembles that of a cathedral-type, inside paints a much different picture from the structural beauty that lies out. Inside is nothing short of pure terror.

Okay, so terror might be a stretch, but there are some pretty strange happenings associated with this little building dubbed, Little St. Marys.

Comfort station one rests on the corner of Beach Dr. and 2nd Ave NE. This Romaesque Revival bathroom actually received national press when it was built. Built in 1927, architect Henry Taylor designed this beauty as a prototype for St Mary’s, built just two-years later. Many believed that Taylor built this bathroom as vengeance for an unpaid debt the church owed him for its construction, but that has been proved false. (source: Ghost Stories of St Petersburg, Clearwater and Pinellas County' by Deborah Frethem).

The stories themselves range from ghostly sightings of an elderly woman to doors opening and shutting on their own to the feeling of “being watched” from various visitors of the stalls. Many if not all of these stories tend to focus around the ladies room. One woman even claimed to see a smoke-like figure of a face appear in the mirror directly behind her, only to disappear as soon as she turned around. A ghost by the name of Agnes has been cited in Frethem’s book by name.

Whether or not you believe the stories, one thing is certain: it is easily one of the most beautiful structures in all of St. Pete. The total cost of construction was roughly $16,000 and at that time, that was no small wager. Maybe that’s why ghosts prefer it? Who says spirts can’t have expensive taste.