Jazz great Louis Armstrong performed three times at St. Petersburg’s Manhattan Casino, in 1940, 1946 and 1957. He was a major star by the time of that third appearance, but Armstrong – even though he’d already headlined the much larger Coliseum downtown – insisted on returning to the Manhattan, located in The Deuces, the centerpiece of the city’s African American community.
According to 1957 news reports, “Satchmo” and his band played for four hours.
A mural painted in 2014 on the north-facing wall of 922 22nd Street depicted the iconic trumpet player as he might have appeared on the neighborhood stage (the Manhattan Casino is at No. 642, just up the street). The mural was created by Tampa artist Herbert Davis.
Tuesday morning, a small work crew whitewashed the Armstrong mural, leaving no trace of Davis’ work. No explanation was offered. Residents immediately took to social media to express their displeasure that local history could be so “disrespected.”
The building is owned by Elihu and Carolyn Brayboy, who operated the restaurant Chief’s Creole Café at the site for many years. They closed Chief’s in 2023.
“In our lease agreements,” Elihu Brayboy said, “we give our leaseholders the opportunity to either keep it like it is, or change it. And evidently they have made a decision to change it. We gave them the freedom to do either way.”
The current leaseholder is Jay Que’s on the Deuces, a nightclub that moved in when the previous lessee, a club called the Catalyst on the Deuces, closed in early February.
A section of the building is occupied by Sid’s Caribbean Grill, which shares the lease with Jay Que’s.
The club owner said Tuesday he has big plans for the now all-white wall. “I’ve already got a couple ideas,” Jay Ques told the Catalyst. He intends to commission a new mural. “Stuff that is about the culture, that the Deuces already has. We gotta get another mural up there, but something that encompasses some of the stuff that went down on 22nd Street. Black history in that area of St. Pete.”
He did not disclose a timeline for the project.
This content provided in partnership with StPeteCatalyst.com
