Railroad entrepreneur Peter Demens established the city of St. Petersburg in the late 19th century. He named it in honor of the Russian city where he was born. As one might expect from an American city named after a Russian city, St. Petersburg's success came from its ability to blend cultures and adapt to changing times. The city billed itself as a welcoming environment where Yankees and Southerners lived together enjoying the weather of the "Sunshine City."The history of St. Petersburg is significant to the history of America's 20th century, as it became a forerunner to the many quickly-developing towns of the West and Southwest that likewise attracted northern residents owing to its climate. Northerners rarely challenged segregation, however. Like most towns in the United States, St. Petersburg was and remains heavily segregated, a process historian Ray Arsenault describes in his book, St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream.

St. Petersburg's City Hall was the largest of a few public buildings made possible by $10 million from the Works Progress Administration. 

This postcard was created shortly after the completion of the building in 1939. 

Learn more about the history of the city with this book from leading historian Ray Arsenault. 

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"St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream, 1888-1950," by Ray Arsenault

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Designed by architect A. Lowther Forrest and completed in 1939, St. Petersburg's City Hall is one several public buildings in the city that were constructed with a total of ten million dollars from the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was a New Deal program that facilitated numerous public works projects in order to provide jobs and stimulate economic recovery. The city grew rapidly in the following decade as many of the pilots, soldiers, and sailors who trained in St. Petersburg returned to the areas after World War II.

St. Petersburg City Hall

Combining architecture, historic hotels, and downtown landmarks, this relatively short walk starts at a trio of historic buildings and St. Petersburg's Holocaust Museum before moving on to the iconic Snell Arcade Building. Additional stops on the tour include the Palladium Theater as the tour winds back and concludes at City Hall. Other highlights of the tour include the city's famed open-air post office, landmarks buildings from the 1920s, and several hotels that were constructed during Florida's land boom. 

Downtown St. Petersburg

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Green-Richman arcade is one of the three lasting arcades in St. Petersburg. With only ten other shopping arcades in the downtown portion of the city, this arcade was welcomed&nbsp;among citizens and tourists in the area during the 1920s and 1940s. This arcade&nbsp;was listed&nbsp;on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The architectural outline for this arcade was originally drawn by George Feltham. Feltham mapped out construction designs for many other significant buildings in the area, including Ponce de Leon Hotel, First Baptist Church, and Sunset Hotel. The arcade was first purchased in 1923 for 1.2 million dollars by John B. Green and William Richman due to Real Estate intentions. In 1934, the building was&nbsp;renamed as the&nbsp;"Seventh Street Arcade". However,&nbsp;when the&nbsp;arcade was purchased by Parsley and Stone, Inc.,&nbsp;it was renamed&nbsp;again to&nbsp;the "Parsley and Stone Arcade". &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The utilization of this building transformed throughout the years since construction. It initially served as a Real Estate location and, later, moved on to become a shopping hub. Today, this arcade serves as an office space, as well as a location for a new science program called, "Hands On". &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Features of this 1.2 million dollar arcade include 877 square feet of flooring. Its Mission Revival style of design encompasses low roofing and Spanish decorations. The location of this arcade, Downtown St. Petersburg, is in the "heart of the city" and attracts historians and tourists wishing to discover the past.

Today, the Green-Richman Arcade is one of three surviving arcades in St. Petersburg. Also known as the Parsley and Stone Arcade, this arcade is deemed to be the most sophisticated building on the West Coast of Florida to this day. It was welcomed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. During the 1940s, it was one of the eleven shopping arcades in downtown St. Petersburg. This arcade was built by John Green and William Richman, who also assisted in the construction of other popular buildings, such as the Ponce de Leon Hotel and First Baptist Church.

Green-Richman Arcade

Jacob F. Alexander, a financier, purchased two lots on Central Ave. in St. Petersburg in April 1919 and hired an Atlanta architect, Neel Reid, to design a hotel. Reid later designed a building for the Alexander National Bank, also in downtown St. Petersburg. A local architect, William Shull, supervised the Alexander Hotel construction which took place from May through December 1919; H. H. Carson won the building contract. Hotel trade publications announced the plans were for a 65-room hotel. Alexander also was building a hotel in 1919 in his hometown of Forest City, North Carolina in 1919, projected to cost $40,000.The hotel was one of at least three new hotels being proposed for St. Petersburg in early 1919. The Alexander didn't open until November 1920. The proprietor of the Alexander Hotel was Robert Ely, who acquired a ten-year lease from Alexander; the hotel manager was Robert Carroll. St. Petersburg continued to see a building boom in the 1920s, and the Alexander Hotel became one of many new hotels, most of which were larger. Room rates ranged from four to eight dollars per night at the Alexander in early 1922.Robert L. Ely was known locally as "Bob" and the Alexander Hotel came to be nicknamed "Bob's" in the 1920s. Ely was a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee who arrived in St. Petersburg in 1915 after working as a blacksmith and a truck manufacturer. He saw a need for the increasing number of automobile travelers to the area to be fed at a reasonable price, so he used his meager savings and a bank loan to start the first cafeteria in St. Petersburg. One of the customers at Bob's Cafeteria was Jacob Alexander, who had been visiting St. Petersburg in the winters for his health since 1911. The two men collaborated to expand the cafeteria and add a hotel. Alexander died in late 1925 in St. Petersburg at age 66.The hotel was constructed of buff-colored brick and concrete. Bob's Cafeteria occupied the eastern third of the first floor, with the kitchen in the building's rear west corner. The lobby was in the front, central portion of the building and was the only part of the building that was one story tall. A store was located to the west of the lobby in the front of the building. The upper three floors with hotel rooms featured a three-tiered veranda or gallery facing Central Ave.; the Classical Revival-inspired verandas with paired Tuscan columns were decorated with intricate details in cast concrete and iron railings. A columned pergola topped the front of the roof of the one-story central lobby, connecting to the verandas of the side wings of rooms on the second floor.The former cafeteria space had been converted into two stores by the 1980s.The Alexander Hotel eventually became a residential hotel, and then closed for good in 1984. Alexander Restoration, LTD. owned the vacant building in 1984 when it was documented for listing in the National Register. The building, with its 75 hotel rooms with their own bathroom on the upper three floors, was restored and converted into office spaces, with commercial spaces flanking the ground-floor lobby.

The Alexander Hotel was constructed on Central Avenue in 1919 for investor Jacob Alexander. The first floor of the four-story building held Bob's Cafeteria, run by Robert Ely, the hotel proprietor. The upper three floors of hotel rooms featured verandas facing Central Ave., decorated with Tuscan columns and iron railings. The hotel opened in 1920, a period when increasing automobile traffic was changing St. Petersburg from a small village to a tourist destination. The hotel eventually transitioned to a residential hotel, offering short and long-term rentals until it closed in 1984. The hotel building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 for its association with Atlanta architect Neel Reid and its Classical Revival architecture. Soon afterward, the vacant building was renovated and became an office building. At the time of this article, the ground floor includes two restaurants, Tony's Pizza (533 Central) and Brick and Mortar (539 Central).

Alexander Hotel

Florida experienced significant growth in the early 1900s, particularly between 1921-1925 during the Florida Land Boom. After World War I, the United States prospered and Americans were able to travel more easily thanks to personal automobiles. Businessmen shrewdly promoted Florida as a "tropical paradise" and as a result, it became a major tourist destination. Roads were built throughout Florida as well to encourage travel and development in the state. This was the context in which Samuel Kress decided to build the store in St. Petersburg.Frank W. Woolworth opened the first five-and-dime store, Woolworth, in 1879 in Utica, New York (five-and-dime stores were given that name because they sold many items for five or ten cents). Located on prominent main streets to attract customers to downtown areas, five-and-dime stores were not simply a place to buy items, they became a destination as they also offered food and spaces for people to socialize. Other five-and-dime department store chains were established not long after Woolworth was founded. Samuel Kress opened the first Kress store in Memphis, Tennessee in 1896. He opened ten more during the next four years.Kress built a number of stores in Florida. Of these the St. Petersburg store was considered the finest architecturally, and some called it "The Pride of Florida." Interestingly, Kress built it despite the land boom having ended. By then he was wealthy and financially secure and could take on such a risk. Consumer demand remained high as well. The store was an immediate success and remained profitable for many years. In the late 1940s, the company bought the adjacent drug store and expanded into it. It appears another company, Genesco Inc., acquired the Kress company in the 1960s and began liquidating most of the Kress stores. However, the St. Petersburg store operated until 1980 or 1981. The city acquired it in 1982 and housed its Municipal Services offices there. The city moved these offices elsewhere in 1996 and sold it to the next owner, who proceeded to renovate the building.

Located in downtown St. Petersburg, the S.H. Kress and Co. Building was one of numerous "five-and-dime" variety stores found around the nation in the 20th century. It is named after its founder, Samuel H. Kress, who established the company in Memphis, Tennessee in 1896. The building was erected in 1927 and became a symbol of economic development and progress. It remains an important landmark in the city. A fine example of Beaux-Arts architecture, notable features include a terra cotta exterior, multi-light transom windows, decorative terra cotta ornamentation, and urns along the edge of the roof. Various businesses and firms occupy the building today. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.

S.H. Kress and Co. Building 

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The museum first opened in 1992&nbsp;as the&nbsp;Tampa Bay Holocaust Memorial Museum and Educational Center. &nbsp;It was the brainchild of businessman Walter Loebenberg and his wife, Edith. &nbsp;They were both German Jews who had escaped Germany in 1939, and Walter had served in the U.S. Army during WWII. &nbsp;Wanting to build a memorial for those that did not manage to escape from the Germans, they partnered with other philanthropists in Tampa and created the museum, housing it in a small rental facility. &nbsp;The museum quickly grew in popularity,&nbsp;attracting twenty-four thousand visitors in its first month alone. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; In 1996, due to the museum's popularity,&nbsp;it was running low on space and it required a larger area. So, in 1998,&nbsp;it moved to an old bank location, which it utilized to better its display of exhibits. A year later, the museum changed its name from the&nbsp;Tampa Bay Holocaust Memorial Museum and Educational Center to the Florida Holocaust Museum. The name change was a result of a&nbsp;revision of&nbsp;the museum's mission statement, which broadened the awareness of the Holocaust on a national level. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The first floor of the museum is the History, Heritage, and Hope Exhibition, a permanent exhibit that details the history of the holocaust, from anti-semitism before WWII to the concentration camps. &nbsp;This exhibit is famous for the boxcar that it has on display, which is one of the last surviving boxcars used by the Nazis&nbsp;to transport prisoners to the camps. &nbsp;Also,&nbsp;there are various rotating exhibits about Jewish history, the Nazis, artwork about the holocaust, and&nbsp;individuals that worked to save&nbsp;Jews from the camps. &nbsp;The museum has collections of photographs, books, and newspaper articles on the holocaust in its library.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Florida Holocaust Museum holds a major significance in the realm of education. The museum hosts educational lectures on the Holocaust&nbsp;and current&nbsp;human rights efforts&nbsp;throughout the year, and hosts the Genocide and Human Rights Awareness Movement, an annual initiative aimed at educating the public on&nbsp;genocides and human rights violations throughout the world.&nbsp;It also molded legislation in 1994, which&nbsp;made Florida the first state to command Holocaust education in the classroom from kindergarten to twelfth grade.

Founded in 1989, the Florida Holocaust Museum is one of the largest holocaust museums in the United States. It covers over twenty-seven thousand square feet of space and houses thousands of photographs, records, and historical artifacts from the holocaust. It houses one of the only lasting railroad boxcars that were utilized by the Nazis to migrate the Jews from Auschwitz to Treblinka. Walter Loepenberg provided a desire for a memorial of the Holocaust, as Loepenberg found an opportunity to flee from the Nazis in Germany in 1939 to become a soldier in the American Army during World War II.

 

Florida Holocaust Museum

Snell was a pharmacist who first came to St. Petersburg with his family for vacations. After buying his&nbsp;property in the city, Snell quickly moved to&nbsp;increase his real estate holdings and eventually decided to move to St. Petersburg in 1904. Within years he was a full-time real-estate developer, purchasing and building numerous downtown structures over the next two-and-a-half decades. Snell&nbsp;is best known for developing the upscale residential and resort community of Snell Isle, including the historic Renaissance Vinoy Golf Club which is located on Snell Isle and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Snell developed luxury homes throughout Snell Isle in the 1920s. Although he had only sold a portion of his lots and much of the Isle was still undeveloped when the stock market collapsed, he continued to dredge the isle and complete his planned community throughout the Great Depression.

Designed by Richard Kiehnel and financed by prominent St. Petersurg businessman and landowner Perry Snell, Snell Arcade was constructed between 1926 and 1928. The building features a Mediterranean Revival style of architecture and makes use of terra cotta and Italianate finishing throughout the exterior of the building. This St. Petersburg landmark has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1982. The retail and office building has been home to department stores, architects, and numerous architects. In 2002, the building owner announced plans to create luxury condominiums in the building. 

Snell Arcade Building

By 1916 when the post office was built, St. Petersburg (and Florida in general) had become increasingly prosperous thanks to tourists and development. The new post office was built in the midst of this growth. As alluded to above, the local postmaster, Roy S. Hanna, wasn't happy with the proposed design of the new building and instead submitted designs created by St. Petersburg architect George W. Stuart. Hanna recognized that a more open building was more appropriate for a warm climate. Instead of having mailboxes inside the building, they are located along the exterior walls. The colonnades (arches) cover these areas and the entrances to the building. Congress appropriated money for purchasing the property in 1909 and later the funds for construction in February 1915. Construction began in October 1916 and the building was completed in September the next year. The post office is visually striking as it features the aforementioned arches, a significant amount of decorative terra cotta detailing, and a Spanish tile roof. The building is both utilitarian and a great example of architecture that is meant to be a landmark.

Constructed in 1916, this post office was designed by architect George Stuart in the Mediterranean Revival style, which would become one of the most popular types of architecture in the city. While most of the earlier public buildings were designed in the Mission style, the post office was one of several buildings that mixed terra cotta with large and open building facades to encourage air flow through St. Petersburg's buildings in an era before air conditioning. The postmaster for the city took part in the building design, working with the architect to create a building that patrons could enter from any side of the street to have better access to their mailboxes and needed services.

United States Post Office

The inn is named after the Cordova family, which operated the hotel until the 1950s. Like many downtown hotels, the Cordova experienced a reduction in business throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and ultimately closed in 1999. By then, the downtown area had declined significantly and was an area to avoid. However, a new owner, a local investor, acquired the old hotel and completely restored it. It opened as the Pier Hotel in 2001 and operated under that name until 2014 when it returned to its previous moniker. The hotel offers 32 guest rooms (many of which contain clawfoot bathtubs) and modern amenities. The St. Petersburg Preservation Society awarded the Cordova Inn the Restoration of the Year Award in 2002.

This three-story Renaissance Revival building was built in 1921 at the outset of the Florida Land Boom, which would become America's first true real estate bubble. It was built of masonry and features an exterior covered in scored stucco to give the appearance of stone. Decorative details include the arcaded entrance with five keyed arches, a balustrade (railing) with urns, and a projecting cornice on the roof. The Cordova Inn is a contributing property of the Downtown St. Petersburg Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cordova Inn

A history of the church provided through its official website: "Built circa 1925, the First United Methodist Church is significant for its highly artistic, academically correct use of the Gothic Revival with a strong English Gothic influence. According to the City’s Florida Site File records less than ten buildings in St. Petersburg are designed in the style and seven of these are churches dating from 1887 to 1925. The building is actually the fourth sanctuary to house the congregation and the third one to be erected on the site. Numbers two and three were constructed in 1902 and 1905 respectively, demolition being necessary to accommodate the expanding congregation.Designed by James Baldwin, the Church is constructed of red brick which is laid in common bond. Cast concrete ornamentation is present on all facades. The roof is a steeply pitched pseudo-mansard style roof with the slopes sheathed in gray slate shingles. The main facade of the Church faces south onto Williams Park. This facade consists of three bays, the easternmost bay with its 144-ft. tall bell tower dominates the facade. The base of the tower is flanked by stairs which rise to the main entry door. Pointed arched windows separated into numerous lights by bar tracery are present above the door and at two other levels. The slightly recessed, wide central bay is gabled and completely filled by a very large gothic arched stained glass window whose complex cast stone tracery echoes the open gothic tracery of the bell tower's carillon (bell tower with fixed bells struck by hammers). The western bay contains an entrance door flanked by buttresses that mimic the composition of the tower bay and thereby balances the composition of this facade.&nbsp; The east elevation, the other important facade fronts directly onto 3rd Street North, a busy downtown street. This facade is comprised of two sections; the nave (sanctuary) of the church and a four-story office wing. The sanctuary section of the is boldly articulated by a projecting semi-hexagonal bay. The office wing is crowned by a higher and more elaborate parapet. The asymmetry of the Sunday School wing contrasts with the rhythmic bays of the nave. However, the two are integrated by the strong vertical lines of the buttresses and the heavy string course at the first floor level. The two deeply recessed planes house the mechanical equipment at the north end of this elevation.&nbsp; All of the windows in the sanctuary are made of leaded stained glass, manufactured in 1926, by the George Hardy Payne Studios of Patterson, New Jersey. These windows are in the Tiffany style, which incorporates multiple layers of opalescent colored glass, often faceted, with the traditional painted and fired glass. The ten windows of the east and west walls of the sanctuary on the lower level depict major events in the life and passion of Christ. The large south wall window is a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper."&nbsp; The sanctuary is typical of the Gothic Revival style of design. It is laid out with pew seating facing the altar. Balconies form a "U" shaped ring around the upper portion of the nave facing the altar. The most impressive feature of the interior of the sanctuary is the amount of colored light flooding in through the Tiffany style glass windows.&nbsp; The church's lofty bell tower originally housed a ten-bell carillon, which has been increased to 15 bells. The original bells were bronze, cast by the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York, in 1926. The largest bell weighs 2,208 pounds. The basic tonality is the key of F, but an additional E-flat bell permits limited use of the key of B-flat. The original manual lever system was altered to an electronic keyboard in 1964."

This 1925 structure was and still is home to St. Petersburg's Methodist residents. Today it is known as the First United Methodist Church of St. Petersburg. This church is one of St. Petersburg's ten buildings constructed with a combination of Greek Revival and English Gothic architecture. These ten were constructed between 1887 and 1925. Its architect, James J. Baldwin, is well known to this day throughout much of the South for his courthouses, churches  and other buildings he made throughout his lifetime. 

First Methodist Church of St. Petersburg

When it opened, the Flori-de-Leon became the first co-op building on the west coast of Florida. It was also considered one of the "crown jewels" in St. Petersburg thanks to its elegant design and H-shaped layout, which promotes air circulation in the apartments. When Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig lived here during spring training, they each rented a penthouse in the building. Unlike other businesses in the city, the Flori-de-Leon has managed to stay open. The nearby Vinoy Hotel, which the U.S. military took over during World War II, closed eventually for a variety of reasons. Flori-de-Leon has also survived floods and hurricanes. It is a contributing property of the Downtown St. Petersburg Historic District, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. While no longer one of the city's tallest buildings, it remains the tallest in the historic district.

Completed in 1926, this seven-story building became the first building cooperative on Florida's west coast. Owing to the hot summers and the lack of air-conditioning when the building was constructed, the architect utilized an "H-shape" that facilitated ventilation throughout each of the apartments. This building was home to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig during the Yankee's spring training. The building remains a co-op, and like each of the current occupants, these players owned apartments in the building.

Flori-de-Leon Apartments

The company that built First Church of Christ Scientist was the George A. Fuller Construction company, which is known for building the famous Flatiron Building in New York City (its original name was the Fuller Building), the U.S. Supreme Court, the Lincoln Memorial, and other well-known buildings. The Romanesque Revival style was an appropriate choice for the church as it was popular in the South for churches, banks and other buildings for evoking strength and stability. By the late 1990s, three large entertainment venues had opened in Tampa but they were not available for local performers and community groups. In 1998, a group of local philanthropists recognized this issue and acquired the church for $575,000 with the intent to convert it into an affordable performing art center. The congregation decided to sell the church because it was too expensive to maintain and membership had decreased as well. The church was renovated into a theater and the first show, a performance by the Florida Orchestra, occurred on February 14, 1998. In 2007, the theater was donated to St. Petersburg College, which operates it and also uses the building for college-related purposes.

This striking building is the Palladium Theater, which was built in 1925 as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, whose congregation moved to its current location in the 1990s. The theater hosts a variety of musical and stage performances in its 815-seat auditorium and its smaller space called the Side Door Cabaret. Architect Henry Lovewell Cheney designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style, modeling it after the Foundlin Hospital in Florence, Italy (that was the work of famous Italian architect, Brunelleschi). Notable features of the theater include a terra cotta roof, an arched portico with Corinthian columns, and a high vaulted ceiling. It is a contributing property of the North Shore Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Palladium Theater

Benjamin T. Boone (1865-1936) was a real estate developer in the early years of growth of St. Petersburg, before World War I. A North Carolina native, Boone moved to St. Petersburg in 1906, Boone served on the city's Planning Board from 1910 to 1914 and later as a Director of Ninth Street Bank until its failure in 1930. In 1888, the Boone House location was part of undeveloped land northwest of the edge of the town that was purchased by Anson Safford (1835-1891) and subdivided. In 1910, Boone purchased two blocks of the Safford land plus two blocks to the west from James D. Crouse. The four blocks, from Fifth Avenue N. to Seventh Ave. between Sixth and Grove Streets, was swampy land surrounding a small lake.Early real estate records were not available for the area, and the Boone House was originally estimated to have been built in 1910, according to Pinellas County. However, or the first couple years, Boone was busy draining and filling the land so it could be developed with houses. Also, the house was not found on the 1913 or 1918 Sanborn insurance maps of the area. St. Petersburg saw its first building boom before World War I, from 1912 to 1917; forty miles of streets were paved in brick by 1917. Boone subdivided his four blocks and offered lots for sale in 1915 via the Hall Real Estate Company; the lots were advertised at around $500 to $1,000. Boone sold the lot including the Boone House location in January 1920 for $8,500; the high price suggests the house was already built, so 1919 is a reasonable estimate.The main architectural feature of the Boone House was the entrance portico, with a pediment supported by four massive, two-story Ionic columns. The footprint of the house was square, and it was designed with a central entrance hall and a hipped roof. While many of the other local homes built in the 1910s were wood frame construction, the Boone House was made of brick. The new owner in 1920, David Pierce, took out a building permit in February 1920 to add a two-story garage at the rear of the lot. The 24-by-26-foot building was estimated to cost $2,000. The second story of the double garage was an apartment. Pierce was married to Flora Fenderson Pierce; the retired couple spent winters in the St. Petersburg house. When Mr. Pierce died in 1928, the Boone House passed to his heirs, who rented out the house from 1929 to 1941. The house was sold in 1941 to Henry I. and Helen Rhoades, who also rented out the home. An architect, Alfred Forrest, was a tenant in the Boone House from 1943 to 1949; Forrest kept an office on the first floor. When the Rhoades moved to St. Petersburg in 1949, they resided in the garage apartment temporarily until their tenant (bank president John H. Green) moved out of the house in 1951. Mr. Rhoades died in 1958 but Mrs. Rhoades continued to live in the Boone House until she passed away in 1972.Rhoades heirs sold the house to a doctor, Edgar Buren, in 1974, who altered the house for his medical offices. In March 1985, the Boone House was purchased by Al and Anet Willingham. The Willinghams spent several months restoring and renovating; the house was then occupied by offices of an architectural firm, Willingham and Associates. The building had not been changed much since it was built, except for a new roof (asphalt shingles) in 1951 and modifications to the rear porch, kitchen, and two second-floor bedrooms. The building has housed offices of General Accounting Systems since the 2000s.

Boone House is one of the oldest masonry residences in St. Petersburg and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. The house was built by Benjamin T. Boone around 1919 in Colonial Revival architectural style. Boone was a developer in the early years of St. Petersburg's growth. The historical building was restored in April to June of 1985 by an architectural firm who established offices in the building. Boone House is now occupied by offices of General Accounting Systems. Behind the Boone House is a two-story wood frame and concrete block garage/apartment that was built on the property in 1920.

Boone House

The Coliseum was built during the Florida Land Boom, which was a period of significant growth in the early 1920s in Florida driven by intense land speculation. Around the same time Coliseum was completed, the Gandy Bridge, which connects St. Petersburg's to Tampa, was built. It contributed substantially to St. Petersburg's economic growth by enabling people to easily travel between the cities. The Coliseum became one of the most popular concert venues in the South and attracted famous artists of the day including Count Basie, Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller. It also hosted local functions such as debutante balls, high school dances, policeman's balls, and even radio shows.After years of hosting events, usage of the Coliseum began to decline in the 1950s and 1960s as newer entertainment venues were built. The Coliseum fell into disrepair and it might have been demolished had it not been for the work of local leaders and preservationists. The city acquired the Coliseum in 1989 and proceed to renovate it. It is a contributing property of the Downtown St. Petersburg Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

One of the most iconic ballroom buildings in the South, the St. Petersburg Coliseum was designed by architect T.H. Eslick and completed in 1924. The historic venue hosted numerous events in the decades that followed. After falling into disrepair, the building was purchased by the city in 1989 thanks to the advocacy of area residents. It hosts a variety of events including concerts, dances, banquets, and arts and craft fairs.

St. Petersburg Coliseum

The sport of lawn bowling is thought to have begun in England in the twelfth century. It was brought to America by English colonists who established the first bowling green in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1632. The town of Bowling Green in Virginia was named for a bowling green established by a Colonel Hoomes in 1670. The first bowling green in New York City was created by the British when they took over the colony from the Dutch in 1664; that green was located where the U.S. Custom House now stands in lower Manhattan; a new green was established just to the north in 1733 and is still a park. After the American colonists won their independence from Great Britain, the English sport fell out of favor for nearly a century until it was revived in the late 1870s by Scottish immigrants, beginning in New York State, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The sport spread across the country, and the American Lawn Bowls Association (ALBA) was founded in 1915 in Buffalo, New York. Separate national associations for male and for female lawn bowlers merged in 2000 to form the United States Lawn Bowling Association (USLBA).The St. Pete LBC was established in 1917 and joined the ALBA in 1920. The facilities occupied just over an acre in the northeast corner of Mirror Lake Park, northeast of the lake. The "bowls" used in lawn bowling are not round (two sides are slightly flattened) and are weighted to one side, so don't roll straight. Games are played in assigned lanes of the bowling green called "rinks," of 15 by 120 feet. Players roll the bowl from a mat placed on the center line of the rink. After all the players have rolled, the bowl that comes closest to the target (a small white ball called the "jack") earns one point. The property included a clubhouse complex and two bowling courts. The larger bowling court, to the south, eventually contained 25 rinks but was reduced to 19 rinks when the city constructed a senior citizens facility nearby in 1976. The south bowling court was used by male members by the late 1970s. When women bowlers formed a separate club in 1926, six more rinks were added to the east of the clubhouse complex. A covered walkway separated the south bowling court from the clubhouse complex and the north (ladies) bowling court.The SPLBC clubhouse was built in the northwest corner of the property in 1918; the single-story, L-shaped wood-frame building was enlarged twice in the 1920s. A Mediterranean Revival style, concrete block addition was placed west of the original building in 1933; a shed addition was built in 1976. The main (north) entrance to the clubhouse along Fourth St. was similar to the rear entrance and featured a central arched doorway plus a pair of narrow, tall windows. A small, concrete block building erected near the northeast corner of the property in 1940 was used as a bowls testing building. When the SPLBC property was studied for the National Register in the late 1970s, its facility was the only one in the U.S. that was officially recognized by the American Lawn Bowls Association for the testing of bowls. Bowls were shipped to the SPLBC where a resident technician would test them and adjust them to a proper profile.The number of lawn bowlers outgrew the SPLBC facility and a second club, the Bartlett Park LBC, formed in 1954. The rinks at SPLBC were rebuilt in 1956 from the original marl covered with a thin layer of sand to a durable synthetic turf called "rubico." The active court currently is the former ladies' court between the clubhouse complex and the testing building. The former south court appears to have become a grass-covered parking lot. Free lessons for newbies are offered at SPLBC at 9am on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning; the season runs from November 1st to April 30th. Official games start those mornings at 9:30am and go until 11:30am. The club supplies equipment to players.

Constructed in 1918, the clubhouse complex of the St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club (SPLBC) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The organization is the oldest formally organized club of its kind in Florida and the tenth oldest in the U.S. The one-story, L-shaped wood-frame clubhouse was built one year after the club was founded, with additions to the structure in the 1920s and 1930s. A testing building was constructed in 1940 and has been used as an official test facility for the special "bowls" needed for this sport. The club opens for the season on November 1st and meets through April every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

St. Petersburg Lawn Bowling Club

The hotel was built for Harry C. Case, a man who came to St. Petersburg from Philadelphia and managed the city's new streetcar line. The hotel struggled during the Great Depression and Case was forced to sell the building to former teacher-turned-lumber baron and politician Ninian Ulysses Bond in 1937. During the 1940s, Bond operated this and several other leading hotels of the city, including the Ponce de Leon and the Colonial.

When the Pennsylvania Hotel opened in 1926, it was the seventh major hotel constructed in the city of St. Petersburg and the tenth constructed in Pinellas County during the short-lived Florida Land Boom of the early 1920s. The building appears unique when compared to the art deco, terra cotta, classical, and Mediterranean styles of architecture that typify the city. This building was constructed in the Chicago Style that blended efficiency, steel frame construction, vertical windows to maximize light, and modern architecture with subtle classical features.  

Pennsylvania Hotel

The city's library system originated in 1899 when the Christian Endeavor Society of the Congregational Church opened a small reading room in the Durant Building at Fourth Street and Central Avenue. Eventually, however, the Society closed the room due to lack of interest. In 1905, a group called the St. Petersburg Reading Room and Library Association opened another room in the Bussey Building on Central Avenue on September 4, 1905. By 1908, the reading room had moved to the Strowger Building at 420 Central Avenue but it had to close. In 1909, the room was reopened at the Mitchell Building at 401 Central Avenue and operated until the library was built in 1915.The effort to obtain a grant from Andrew Carnegie began in 1908 when a library committee was assigned to the task. However, the committee did not make a serious attempt to secure funding. In 1912, city councilman Ralph Veillard started to negotiate with the Carnegie Corporation, which offered $12,500, but the city argued that amount was not enough. The Library and Municipal Advertising Commission made another attempt in 1913 and sent a representative to New York City to meet with officers of the Carnegie Corporation (he brought with him letters and city reports to support his request for a larger grant). The Corporation was persuaded and increased the grant offer to $17,500. The city approved of the grant in July 1914 and chose this property for its central location and close proximity to schools. The library was completed on September 11, 1915 and opened on December 1.From 1951 to 1997 many additions and renovations were made to the library to modernize it. By the end of the 1980s, the wing added in 1951 was replaced. Much of the 1915 architecture has been preserved.

Built in 1915, the Mirror Lake Community Library (MLCL) was one of ten Florida libraries whose construction was funded in part by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Also known as the St. Petersburg Public Library or Carnegie Library, the MLCL was the city's first permanent home for a library and in 1915 represented the city's transformation from a rural community to a modern urban center with cultural institutions. The library is also an excellent and one of the earliest examples of Beau-Arts architecture in the city. It was built with buff-colored brick and features decorative cast concrete elements such as string courses, pilasters (columns), and a cornice. The library is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a contributing property of the Downtown St. Petersburg Historic District, which is also listed on the register.

Downtown St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg City Hall

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information