St. Petersburg's Pier

Then

(Florida State Archives)

Now















History of The Pier

Polynesian Putter

The other evening we played a round. Polynesian Putter is a 1970s mini golf course on St. Pete Beach that features a large tiki head with glowing blue eyes. Three years ago it was chosen as the area's "Best Putt-Putt," and I don't think much has changed since then. It's basic, many of the course obstacles are actually garden statuary, but if you just want a relaxed way to pass an hour with family or friends, it's just the thing.

Founded in 1972, Polynesian Putter is a Treasure Island survivor. The tiki head on the course is echoed by a tiki head on the score card, although some have pointed out that the tiki head on the score card was actually at Tiki Gardens. Tiki Gardens was a Hawaiian-themed resort down the road, which is now a local beach access.































The hole under the snake forks, and you have to choose which way to go.

Anna Maria Island City Pier

In the early 1890s, George Emerson Bean of Connecticut set up a homestead on the northern end of Anna Maria Island, looking across salt water to Egmont Key, at the mouth of Tampa Bay. In 1911 George's son George started the Anna Maria Beach Company along with John Roser (more about him later), beginning commercial development of the island. One of the first steps was to build a city pier on the bay side of the island, where excursion steamers from Tampa could unload passengers.

The City Pier is still a popular spot for tourists, day trippers, and local fishermen.

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Further Reading

Visiting Small-Town Florida (Revised Edition) by Bruce Hunt (Pineapple Press, 2003)

A Historical Geography of Southwest Florida Waterways: Volume One, Anna Maria Sound to Lemon Bay (Sea Grant Florida, 2000)

Virtual Wanderings Through Florida

Various interesting sites I've happened across lately...

Miami: Reflections on the River. You can watch videos about the Miami River, and even make your own to add to the site.

Florida's Lost Tourist Attractions. 50+ homages to roadside attractions that have passed.

Historical Tampa. A Google Map showing former locations of historic buildings, site, and landmarks in Tampa.

St. Petersburg Times' Special Report on Spring Training in St. Petersburg

Spanish River Papers. Available through the Boca Raton Historical Society's website, pdf copies of their journal, dating from 1973 to 1993.

Florida News Stories

"What If?" (by Eliot Kleinberg, Palm Beach Post, February 17, 2008) "Florida has been the scene of several near-misses that would have dramatically changed history."

"Mud-spattered tales from the Forgotten Coast of Florida" (St. Catherines Standard, February 9, 2008) "Lash a dead deer or a couple gutted wild boars to the ATVs racks, and you could likely run for sheriff. "

"Miami in June" (Isle of Man Today, February 15, 2008) "After graduating from the University of Kent in June, a friend and I felt we definitely deserved a holiday."

"Vultures Settling Into Urban Areas" (Miami Herald, February 9, 2008) "The winter visitors rest on high-rise balconies and peck at the rubber around automobile windshields. They leave abundant whitewash, and on rare occasions have flown into jets at altitudes greater than 3,500 feet. They roost, and often dine, communally."

"A stylish tradition: Mr. I Got 'Em's spirit lives at the Saturday Morning Market." (St. Petersburg Times, February 9, 2008)

"First lady Laura Bush visits Everglades" (Miami Herald, February 7, 2008) "Airboat rides and snake shows weren't on the itinerary for first lady Laura Bush's maiden trip to the Everglades."

Distincive Apalachicola

The National Trust of Historic Places just released a list of a Dozen Distinctive Destinations, which includes Florida's Apalachicola. The City of Apalachicola is known for its oysters, but there is more to the story than just shellfish.

To learn more, I recommend:

Florida's Forgotten Coast: Life on the Apalachicola Bay, an Oral History project from the Southern Foodways Alliance

Apalachicola River--An American Treasure, by Clyde Butcher (University Press of Florida, 2006)

Voices of the Apalachicola, Edited by Faith Eidse (University Press of Florida, 2007)

Florida News

"Cold Snap Has Iguanas Falling From Trees In South Florida" (Tampa Tribune, January 4, 2008)

"'Fountain Of Youth' Memories Bubble In Bay" (Tampa Tribune, January 5, 2008: "Not far from where the Tampa Bay Rays hope to build a new ballpark, something is bubbling to the surface.")

"A merman rests" (St. Petersburg Times, January 4, 2008)

"A look back at Sarasota's rare snowfalls" (mysuncoast.com, January 2, 2008)

"Looking back on 1968" (Gainesville Sun, January 6, 2008: about the University of Florida)

"Preserving Melbourne's past" (Florida Today, January 6, 2008)

"Secrets of Miami Circle, known as America's Stonehenge, lie buried" (Orlando Sentinel, January 2, 2008)

"The secret islands of Pasco County" (Miami Herald, January 6, 2008)

"Tampa youth retrieves Epiphany cross in Tarpon Springs" (St. Petersburg Times, January 6, 2008)

"Florida city pushes to preserve charm of brick streets" (Savannah Morning News, December 28, 2007: about St. Augustine)

Florida -- Read All About It

"50 Years Later, Seminole Tribe of Florida Marks Key Date" (Sun-Sentinel, Aug. 22, 2007) "...from termination to self-determination."

"26 Florida Companies Make Inc. 500" (South Florida Business Journal, Aug. 23, 2007)

"State Puts Bridge Inspections Online" (Tampa Tribune, Aug. 20, 2007)

"Dearborn Should Sell Its Florida Property" (Editorial in The Detroit News, Aug. 23, 2007) The City of Dearborn, Michigan, owns a Clearwater condominium building.

"Miami Nice -- And Naughty" Jewish Exponent, Aug. 23, 2007. "...Miami's thriving and varied Jewish scene that features dozens of synagougues, scores of kosher restaurants and a handful of mikvot."

"Dancin in the Street Helped Revitalize Downtown Stuart" (tcpalm.com, Aug. 24, 2007) 20th anniversary of program sponsored by Stuart Main Street. Florida Main Street is a statewide program designed to promote economic development while preserving historic buildings.

"Hunting a Hurricane" -- A St. Petersburg Times special report about the Hurricane Hunters based at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base.

"10 Things" The Sun-Sentinel is running a series giving 10 reasons to visit local attractions -- among the featured sites are Miami's Seaquarium, Coral Gables' Venetian Pool, the John D. MacArthur State Park, Peanut Island, and Flamingo Gardens.

Clermont's Citrus Tower

We stayed in Clermont for awhile this summer, so one afternoon we visited the Citrus Tower on Highway 27. The 226-foot tall tower was built in 1956, when it provided tourists with panoramic views of citrus groves flowing over rolling hills. Freezes in the 1980s killed many of the trees, and now the tower provides tourists with panoramic views of subdivisions. But it is still an interesting place, and a unique perspective.

There are stores and a restaurant at the base of the tower. To go up to the top, you must buy a ticket in the gift shop. The elevator entrance is a single door, behind the counter. Once at the top, painted signs explain which direction you are looking, and how far it is to points of interest. For kids, or the kid inside, there is a slot to drop a coin and listen as it falls all the way back down the tower.

The Citrus Tower's website has more information and photographs of the tower being built. In the photographs below, you may notice a one of a white columned building with a scale model of Mount Rushmore in the parking lot. That's the Presidents Hall of Fame.

Recent News Items

"Pembroke Pines Mayor Wants to Save Historic WWII Building" (Sun Sentinel August 4, 2007)

"UCF Creates Virtual World" (Florida Today, August 1, 2007)Students work on website documenting Cape Canaveral's history.

"After Ups and Downs" (Tampa Tribune, August 2, 2007) Hortense Sotomayor retires after 26 years of operating the elevator in Tampa's historic city hall.

"Dog Days Are Over" (Tampa Tribune, July 27, 2007) Mel's Hot Dogs is up for sale.

"Mural Celebrates Community" (St. Petersburg Times, August 3, 2007) New mural draws on West Tampa history.

"Mermaids' Last Splash? Debt Imperils 60-Year-Old Weeki Wachee" (Orlando Sentinel, July 28, 2007)

"Weeki Wachee Turf War Still Murky" (St. Petersburg Times, July 29, 2007)

"Sisters of the Sea" (St. Petersburg Times, July 28, 2007)

"Teresa Giles Runs PJ's Sandwich Shop" (Bradenton Herald, July 31, 2007)

Other Voices

Saurly Yours -- "Our Trip to Egmont Key"

"Vintage Urbanism in the CBD" -- Boom or Bust: Miami looks at restored historic buildings in Miami

"Go Go Gatorland!" -- Celebration Florida visits a recovering Gatorland

Woodland Shoppers Paradise is "Searching for Webb's City"

Seminole Heights "As Grandma Remembers"

And a new blog, Florida Keys History This Week

Gilded Age Resort Hotels

The Belleview Biltmore is just one of Florida's great Gilded Age resort hotels still standing today.

In St. Augustine, Henry Flagler's Hotel Ponce de Leon is now part of the Flagler College campus.

His Alcazar Hotel is the Lightner Musuem.

The Casa Monica is a hotel again, after years of service as the St. Johns County Courthouse.

The Breakers in Palm Beach is still in business, although the original hotel building burned, and the current structure dates to the 1920s rather than the Gilded Age.

Henry Plant's Tampa Bay Hotel, like the Ponce de Leon, is part of a college campus (University of Tampa), although part of one wing is the Henry B. Plant Museum.

In The Architecture of Leisure, Susan Braden traces the role of the two Henry's, Flagler and Plant, in creating Florida's winter luxury resorts: "These two wealthy New York businessmen ... effectively transported urban cultural ideas to Florida, transforming a sparsely inhabited, scraggily beautiful near-wilderness into what they promoted as the 'American Riveria.'" Braden's thought-provoking book explores not only why Flagler and Plant built the hotels, but the thinking behind the exotic architecture, and what this all said about the society and culture of the time.

Multimodal Transportation and Touring Historic Florida

From time to time on this blog, I have discussed heritage tourism and scenic byways, and the topic of one-tank trips has even come up. But with so much public attention turning to gas prices, climate change, and mass transit, I wondered if too much emphasis is being placed on automotive travel. My first step towards an answer is a quick survey of existing modes of transportation available for exploration of this state.

In the category of engine-powered transportation, I found driving tours, boat tours, trolley tours, bus tours, amphibious duck boat tours, seaplane, and even conch train tours.

In the category of self-propelled transporation, I found walking tours, canoe trails, hiking trails, and bike tours.

In the category of animal-propelled transporation, I found horse trails. Ostrich and alligator-drawn carriages seem to have fallen out of favor.

Florida's economy relies heavily on tourism, but Florida is also a large and growing state with complex transportation needs. The two issues intersect -- how will tourists get to Florida, and how will they move around once they are here? If it is also a goal to promote heritage tourism, how should tourists best travel to historic and cultural sites?

(Oddly, looking at this list, I see that although I have traveled Florida by car, foot, boat, canoe, bicycle, and horseback, I have never personally been on any of the tours or trails I linked to. My subconscious mind must be muttering about vacations again.)

Circa 1901-1905 photograph of Governor W. S. Jennings by the St. Augustine city gates in an alligator cart, courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Photographic Collection.

Sunday Visit to Animal Kingdom

Sunday I spent the day at Animal Kingdom -- the newest of the Walt Disney World parks, built in the 1990s. Disney is a major econmoic and cultural force in Florida.

The pictures are a little dark --wouldn't you know I'd pick the one day in the middle of a drought that it actually poured down rain? The bottom photo has a "hidden mickey."

Some books about Disney (not tour guides!):

Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando, by Richard Foglesong

Building the Dream: The Art of Disney Architecture, by Beth Dunlop

Team Rodent, by Carl Hiaasen


Some Disney Blogs:

The Disney Blog

Disney History

Passport to Dreams Old and New

Freddy Goes to Florida

,I was scanning a list of recommended children's books the other day when the title Freddy Goes to Florida caught my eye (how could it not catch my attention?!). The cover shows farms animals staring at alligators. So of course, I had to read it.

First published in the late 1920s and originally titled To and Again, Freddy Goes to Florida was the first of 26 children's books Walter R. Brooks wrote about the animals living on Mr. Bean's farm in upstate New York. Brooks was himself a New Yorker, and had worked in advertising before embarking on a career in writing and publishing. Aside from his Freddy the Pig books, Brooks is best remembered for writing a short story that inspired the Mr. Ed TV series.

Basically, the plot of Freddy Goes to Florida is this: the animals on Mr. Bean's farm do not want to spend another winter in cold, drafty barns. So they decide to go to Florida for the winter. Along the way, they meet people and animals and have adventures. In the Springtime, they return to their farm reinvigorated.

But how does Brooks portray Florida? The journey is as important a part of the story as is the animals' stay in Florida. They don't arrive at their destination until halfway through the book, in Chapter 11:

They sniffed the air delightedly.

"Mmmmmmm!" said Mrs. Wiggins. "Isn't that good? It's better than clover. I wonder what it is."

"I know," said Jack. "I've smelt it at weddings. See all those little green trees down ther? They're orange-trees, and that smell is orange-blossoms."

"Look! Look!" squealed Freddy. "There's a palm-tree!"

"It's Florida!" shouted Jinx.

And all the animals shouted together: "Florida!"


The animals dance and celebrate reaching Florida. Freddy makes up a poem:

In Florida, in Florida,
Where the orange-blossom blows,
Where the alligator sings so sweet.
And the sweet-potato grows;
Oh, that is the place where I would be,
And that is where I am ---
In Florida, in Florida,
As happy as a clam.

And then they head off to the beach, where they stay for a month:

"Every day at four o'clock they went in for a dip in the surf, and then they would lie round on the sand and talk until supper-time. It was a very lazy and pleasant life that they lived in Florida."

Eventually, they decide they should see more of the state, so they head off to Palm Beach, Miami, and the Everglades. In the Big Cypress Swamp, they encounter a hungry group of alligators. Mrs. Wiggins (who is a cow) tries to scare them off:

"Keep away, now!" she said. "We won't stand any nonsense!"

But the alligators only laughed, and one of them said: "Oho! You won't eh? Well what did you come into our country for, then?"

They alligators take the animals to Grandfather Alligator, who remembers the when the Spanish explorers visited Florida. He wants to eat them as well, despite being scolded by Jinx the Cat:

"What do you suppose all the animals up north are going to think of you when they hear about it? Eating up visitors who come to make you a friendly call! A nice opinion they'll get of Florida!"

Eventually, the farm animals escape the alligators, and continue their vacation until spring arrives and it is time to go home to Mr. Bean.

The image of Florida correlates with the popular tourist images of the 1920s, when the book was written. Florida as a wild, somewhat foreign place to rest and play before returning to your actual life.

(This book is most appropriate for third or fourth grade, and would appeal to children who like stories with talking animals. Even though the story was written 80 years ago, there are no obscure references to old machines or technologies that kids today would not understand. The edition I read was published by Overbrook Books in 1998, and is 197 pages with black and white line drawings by Kurt Wiese).

When You've Got It Bad, We've Got It Good

In honor of spring break, spring training, and the snowbirds, here's a link to a 1970s Florida tourism publicity video with a catchy jingle.

O, Those Ostriches!

Every spring, the state legistlature meets to discuss the budget and taxes, and someone always mentions Florida's sales tax exemption for ostrich feed. In 1992, ostriches were reclassified as domestic livestock, and the tax exemption went into effect to support what was seen as an emerging industry in Florida. Starting in the late 1980s, ostrich was promoted as a low-fat, low-cholesterol beef alternative. Soon, ostrich farms were popping up all over the place. Unfortunately, demand did not follow and problems with slaughtering, marketing, and distributing kept ostrich product prices high. In the mid to late 1990s, most ostrich farms in Florida went out of business. The feed tax exemption stayed.

Ostrich farming was popular in Florida one hundred years ago, too. The first ostriches were brought to the United States in the late 1880s, and in the late 1890s the Florida Ostrich Farm opened in Jacksonville. While this was a tourist attraction featuring ostrich races, they also raised the large birds for their feathers. Depending on the color, length, and width, a single plume could cost as much as $40 (approximately $800 in today's dollars). The fluffy plumes were popular decorations for ladies hats, both in America and Europe. In addition to individual plumes, the Florida Ostrich Farm sold feather boas, stoles, and fans.

Ostrich farms were popular tourist destinations in Jacksonville well into the twentieth century, but other cities had them, too. There was a farm in St. Petersburg in the early part of the century, where the Wells family raced French ostriches and sold egg and plume souvenirs. Today, there are few ostrich farms operating in Florida. Bird races never really caught on and are seen locally only in old photographs and vintage postcards.

The American Ostrich Association has some interesting facts and figures available on its website -- for instance, did you know that an ostrich's brain is approximately the same size as its eyeball?

(Circa 1910 photograph of Henry Jackson Bond on a stuffed ostrich in Tallahassee, Florida, courtesy Florida Photographic Collection, State Archives of Florida.)