As the Northeast Journal’s 20th anniversary coincides with the September/October issue, it seems timely to look back at our area’s top haunted places. Some of these have been covered in the hallowed pages of prior NEJ issues, but we threw in a few extra – just for boo…

Perhaps the best-known haunted spot is one with its own big anniversary next year: St. Pete’s Pink Lady, the Vinoy Hotel. It was built by Aymer Vinoy Laughner, a wealthy businessman from Pennsylvania, at the urging of his party guests. He bought the land for $170,000, hired now-famous architect Henry Taylor (we will see him again in this article), and worked to finish the 375-room hotel in 10 months so that it could open on New Year’s Eve 1925. Its… Read More

Whether you’re new to the area or have had an historic bungalow in your family for generations, everyone falls in love with our little corner of St. Petersburg sooner or later. In honor of 20 years delivering stories about our community to our community, we asked readers to share their very favorite things about the greater Old Northeast neighborhoods.  

Year-round gardening. With an ever-growing tree canopy and beautiful weather (most of the year), there’s never a bad time to play in the yard. Unless you don’t enjoy that sort of thing, and then you can always admire the work of others.… Read More

This being an anniversary issue, we’ve got one more to mention. This year marks the first time a woman took a scheduled flight, 110 years ago, right here in St. Pete. Sound easy? Take a look at that plane and spare a thought for how daring she truly was. The local news seemed to think so. 

Woman Will Fly with Jannus on Trip to Tampa. That was the headline in the paper on January 2, 1914. The article went on to report: “Miss Mae Peabody, of Dubuque, Iowa, will be the first woman to take a trip in an aeroplane on a regular run between two cities and will be the first passenger on the first regular trip of the St.… Read More

Shuffleboard is fun! Hanging out with friends and making new ones? Also fun! Raising money for an incredibly good cause, while playing shuffleboard with friends and enjoying delicious food and drink? Right this way to the Ready to Shuffle charity event at St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club on Thursday, November 7. 

The second annual benefit for Ready for Life, a skill center that supports former foster care youth, offers attendees fun, refreshments, and the heartfelt satisfaction of helping those who need it. Whether you’re a regular shuffler or just curious, all are invited to come out for a cause that offers “homelessness prevention, education and employment, and lifeline support networks” for former foster youth.… Read More

Rev. Ben Atherton-Zeman has done impressions since childhood, and he’s good at them, immediately launching into an amusing channeling of broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite and the Monty Python comedy troupe. “What can I say,” he jokes, “I was an only child and growing up I had to entertain myself.” 

While Atherton-Zeman may have a gift for comedy – he met his wife Lucinda while they were both performing improv – it was not meant to be his life’s work. Instead, Atherton-Zeman, the new minister of the Unitarian Universality Church of St. Petersburg, used his talent for humor toward a very altruistic purpose: social justice.  … Read More