On account of the fact that I had the interweb time machine fired up yesterday for the McRory’s post I thought it might be good to talk about the Comfort Station, also known as the most awesome public restroom in St. Petersburg.

The Romanesque dookie house was built in 1927 and shares a particularly similar design to St. Mary’s Church, which you can see on the right courtesy of Flickr user HexBlock (who also provided the image above). Both buildings were designed by Henry Taylor, who also designed the Vinoy and Admiral Farragut Academy.

Rumor has it that Taylor did not feel that he was paid appropriately for his work on St. Mary’s and in retaliation designed the public restroom to be a miniature version of the church. His wife later said that wasn’t the case, but you’ve got to admit they look pretty damn similar. I like to think Taylor was making a statement, his very own 1920’s version of a Piss Christ.

Even though it seems you could easily disprove the rumor by looking at the dates, the rumor persists. We know for sure that the Comfort Station was built in 1927 while St. Mary’s was built in 1929. This would seem to indicate that the Little St. Mary’s rumor isn’t true. However, according to the history of St. Mary’s, Taylor started work for the church in 1924 with a rectory a few blocks away. It is possible that the design was completed years before the church was built, which is enough for me to enjoy the thought of some dude making a tiny poop version of the great church.

Fun Fact: the church was built for a measly $129,000. I’ll take two, please!