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SUNSHINE CITY ERA

22

Turn your getaway into your Everyday

Experience

the

lifestyle

you’ve

always dreamed of. From waterfront

estates to vibrant city styles. Tampa

Bay

offers

more

than

just

destination- it offers a home. Let me

guide you to the extraordinary.

Julie Larsen

REALTOR® | 727.773.5592

julie.larsen@corcorandwellings.com

By Wayne Ayers, Author, St. Petersburg: The Sunshine City

During the 1920’s boom era, promoter and newspaper editor

Lew B. Brown created “The Sunshine City” theme to showcase

St. Petersburg’s prime attraction…year-round balmy sunshine.

To back his claim, Brown offered free copies of his paper, the

Evening Independent, any day the sun did not appear.

The Sunshine City era became St. Petersburg’s defining age…a

period of fast and furious growth during which the city’s most

significant institutions, buildings and attractions came into

being and flourished.

• During the period from 1922 to 1926, eleven major hotels were

built in St. Petersburg. Many of these structures remain today:

The Vinoy, Princess Martha, Ponce de Leon, Pennsylvania,

Jungle Hotel (now Admiral Farragut Academy) and Rolyat

(now Stetson School of Law).

• Sunken Gardens began in 1924 as a small flower and

vegetable garden planted by plumber George Turner, Sr.,

in a sinkhole in his back yard. Today, the Gardens are owned

and splendidly maintained by the City of St. Petersburg.

• Tennessee native James Earl “Doc” Webb turned a tiny St.

Petersburg drug store into “The World’s Most Unusual Drug

Store,” a mammoth

wonder spanning

several blocks.

Webb’s City

flourished through

the relentless

promotion of

Doc Webb, until

discount chains

emerged to spell

its doom in the 1970’s.

• St. Petersburg became known nationwide as the City of

Green Benches during the 1920’s. The famed benches were

born in 1907 when real estate agent Noel Mitchell placed a

few benches carrying his advertising message in front of his

offices to draw patrons to his “out-of-the-way” location at

4th Street and Central Avenue.

• Williams Park, with its band concerts and walkways, was the

social center of St. Petersburg in the 1920’s.

St. Petersburg: The Sunshine City, by R. Wayne Ayers contains

over 200 vintage photographic images along with text

presenting a visual tour of the city during the boom days of

the early 1900’s.