Est. 1933 · St. Petersburg Roadside Architecture · Florida Mid-Century Tourist Attraction · Pinellas County Cultural History
Earl Parker Gresh (1896–1977) arrived in St. Petersburg from New Jersey in 1911. After Navy service in World War I, he led the Gangplank Orchestra, which recorded for Columbia Records from 1924 to 1927, before redirecting his energies to woodcarving, speedboat racing, and fishing. In the early 1930s he built the English-cottage structure at 2221 4th Street North from longleaf pine timbers, cypress siding, and bricks pulled from the old Fort Dade fortification on Egmont Key.
The building opened January 13, 1940, as the Earl Gresh Wood Parade Museum, charging twenty-five cents admission. The centerpiece was an 11-foot-diameter cross-section from a 3,000-year-old cypress tree, cut near Shamrock, Dixie County, in 1904. Gresh's marquetry murals depicting the life of Christ, assembled from 62 different woods over 17 years of carving, drew visitors along the 4th Street tourist corridor. The museum also sold custom wood purses, fishing lures, and tackle boxes.
Highway rerouting that shifted traffic patterns away from 4th Street forced the museum's closure around 1955. The life-of-Christ murals were donated to Memorial Park's Christ Chapel, where they remain. Subsequent tenants included a French restaurant, a Melting Pot fondue franchise (1988–2020), and Sesh Brewpub, opened in April 2023 by the owner of Mad Beach Craft Brewing. Sesh closed in late October or early November 2025.
Sources
- https://stpetecatalyst.com/vintage-st-pete-earl-gresh-and-wood-parade/
- https://northeastjournal.org/earl-greshs-memory-lives-on-at-sesh/
- https://www.tampabay.com/life-culture/food/food-news/2025/11/04/sesh-st-petersburg-closed-restaurant-brewery-fourth-street/
Handprints on mirrorObject anomalies
The primary haunted claim at 2221 4th Street North centers on a large antique mirror that has been part of the building through several tenancies. When Sesh Brewpub owner Matthew Powers brought the mirror from a back room into the main bar area in 2021, he was drawing on a story that staff had circulated across decades: the mirror produces handprints on its glass surface after people walk away from it. Multiple employees at The Melting Pot, which occupied the building from 1988 to 2020, reported the same phenomenon.
Before Sesh Brewpub opened in April 2023, the Tampa Bay Times arranged for paranormal investigators to examine the property. The May 2021 article — headlined "Is the Old St. Pete Melting Pot Haunted? Ghost Hunters Went Inside" — documented the visit. The full findings of the investigation were not made publicly available in detail, but the Times characterized the building's haunted reputation as an established piece of local oral tradition.
Creative Loafing Tampa Bay included the Sesh building in a list of the 24 most haunted places in the Tampa Bay area, citing the mirror anomalies and an additional murder-suicide legend associated with the property. The specific historical basis for the murder-suicide claim has not been independently corroborated in documented records.
Media Appearances
- Is the Old St. Pete Melting Pot Haunted? Ghost Hunters Went Inside (newspaper, 2021)
