Since the beginning, it has always been about bridges.
The story of The Portico began with Methodists finding new ways to reach people. In 1846, circuit rider J.C. Ley helped establish the first church in Tampa, carrying the Methodist mission across a growing Florida frontier.
In 1899, three families from First Methodist started a Sunday School in a Hyde Park schoolhouse because the bridge over the Hillsborough River often prevented families from reaching downtown church. That simple act of faith became the beginning of Hyde Park United Methodist Church.
More than a century later, Hyde Park was called to cross the river in the opposite direction. After First United Methodist Church closed in 2011, Hyde Park accepted the downtown campus in 2012 and embraced a new mission: to serve downtown residents, workers, and neighbors while sharing the love of Christ in tangible ways.
The name The Portico emerged through prayer, Scripture, and history. In Acts 3, Solomon's Portico was a gathering place where people encountered healing, hope, and the message of Jesus. The name also appeared in the history of First United Methodist Church as the architectural feature connecting its sanctuary and administration building, a place of welcome and invitation.
Those connections shaped a vision for a new kind of ministry: a welcoming porch on the edge of faith where people could belong, ask questions, build relationships, and encounter Christ.
Today, The Portico continues that mission through worship, hospitality, recovery ministries, the arts, community partnerships, and service. The methods may look different, but the purpose remains the same.
From a circuit rider crossing Florida, to families crossing a river, to Hyde Park crossing back into downtown Tampa, the pattern is clear: whenever barriers separate people from God and one another, faithful people build bridges.
The Portico exists because generations believed no one should have to cross alone. Today, that work continues as strangers become neighbors, neighbors become disciples, and God's love is made real.