St. James House of Prayer

The historic church of St. James House of Prayer Episcopal was erected in 1922 and dedicated in February 1923. The Gothic Revival church includes a tower, battlements, and stained glass windows. SJHOP is so unique in the fact that it was built with 16-inch-thick (410 mm) concrete walls on the interior, and exterior walls composed entirely of flint rock, stacked with mortar. The rocks were collected from the bottom of the Hillsborough River however, the rocks did not occur there naturally. The rocks came from all around the world aboard the sailing ships of centuries past and wound up in Tampa as the ships discarded ballast from their hulls. Because of the amazing stonework, the building is occasionally referred to as "The Rock Church."The original St. James Episcopal was organized in 1892 as an Anglican Episcopal Church for the city's community. At that time, many Bahamian and Cuban immigrants were arriving in Tampa to work in the cigar industry.