Designed by architect A. Lowther Forrest and completed in 1939, St. Petersburg's City Hall is one several public buildings in the city that was constructed with a total of ten million dollars the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPS 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.
Located in downtown St. Petersburg, this "five and dime" department store was one of dozens of such stores found around the nation from the 1920s to the 1960s. This store in particular completed int 1927 and closed down in the 1960s after the Kress company was by Genesco Inc., who began liquidating most of the stores and moved to shopping malls. Abandoned for many years, the building is now home to various businesses and firms.
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.
Constructed in 1916, this post office was designed by architect George Stuart in a style of Mediterranean Revival architecture that would become one of the signatures of the city of St. Petersburg. While most of the earlier public buildings utilized mission-style architecture, this 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 post master 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.
This three-story Neoclassical Revival building was built in 1921-the early portion of the Florida Land Boom that would become America's first true real estate bubble. The hotel stayed in the Cordova family until the 1950s, but with one brief exception, retained the Cordova name for its entire history. Like many downtown hotels, the Cordova faced declining business throughout the 1970s and 1980s and closed for a number of years at the end of the 20th century. The hotel was later purchased and restored, opening as the Pier Hotel before returning to its previous moniker.
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.
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.
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 coo-op, and like each of the current occupants, these players owned apartments in the building.
One of St. Petersburg's original resorts, this property was designed by architect Henry L. Taylor for businessman and real estate developer Aymer Vinoy Laughner. The resort opened on New Year's Eve in 1925. Although the hotel was completed just as the real estate boom of this part of Florida was ending, the hotel had little difficulty in the booming years of the late 1920s as railroads brought thousands of vacationers to the hotel each month. The hotel survived the Great Depression owing to the large numbers of wealthy families that could still afford to travel, but the boom years of the 1960s signaled its decline as many travelers preferred to travel by automobile and staid in newer and less-expensive hotels along the interstate. By the 1970s, the hotel was vacant and would have been demolished in 1984 had it not been for the efforts of preservationists who worked with the and private developers. After being vacant for nearly two decades, the fully-restored Vinoy re-opened in 1992.
Combining architecture, historic hotels, and baseball lore, this mile-and-a half tour starts at City Hall and ends at the legendary Vinoy Park Hotel. 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.
