Growing up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, Girl Scout camp was the highlight of my summer. Two weeks away from home living in the woods was a dream come true. It’s where I learned to sail a Sunfish, paddle a canoe, and never leave my sleeping bag unzipped after finding daddy longlegs taking a nap inside. Camp is also where I landed my first journalism “job” as a reporter for the little newspaper we published each week.

When an invitation came from the Girl Scouts of West Central Florida to visit Camp Wai Lani in Palm Harbor, enjoy some of the activities and sample this year’s lineup of Girl Scout Cookies, I jumped at the chance. … Read More

I recently had occasion to watch Stanley Kramer’s 1960 classic film Inherit the Wind, about the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial.” Frederic March plays William Jennings Bryan, defending the Tennessee law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in public schools. Spencer Tracey plays Clarence Darrow, defending the high school teacher John T. Scopes, who is charged with violating the law. Bryan, known as the “Great Commoner,” was a three-time presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket and served for two years as Woodrow Wilson’s Secretary of State. Darrow was perhaps the most famous trial lawyer of the time.

This summer marks the 97th anniversary of that historic trial, one that has surprising St.… Read More

What do a wealthy real estate speculator, a Confederate veteran, and a holocaust survivor have in common? They all called the same corner of the Old Northeast their home. 

The house at 1630 Locust Street had been in Dave Bennett’s family since his mother bought it in 1974. Back then, it still featured two apartments on the second floor, remnants of its years as a guest house. Dave and his wife, Pam, bought it in 1996 when the large home became too much for his mother to care for. They’d done some cursory research as they renovated the home over the years, but like many residents in St.… Read More

Emily Elwyn’s on a mission, and she won’t be stopped. Not by a pandemic, not by the summer heat, and certainly not by the elusive nature of what she seeks – the nightblooming cereus. You may have seen one, but probably not in bloom.

Unbloomed, the nightblooming cereus looks like a cactus and a vine had a spiky love child. When it blooms, though, it’s a spectacle of light and majesty, a post-twilight celebration. The white chalice-shaped blooms unfurl from the spiny cactus vine that can climb 30 feet into the air. For only a few hours – on just one night each year – they turn trees, telephone poles, and fences into summertime Christmas trees.… Read More

With its stone arches and towering architecture, St. Pete’s Palladium Theater commands attention. What lies inside the historic theater at 253 5th Avenue North is no less inspiring. It’s a place for local acts to practice, perform, and entertain at a price dwarfed by the big-time costs of surrounding theaters.

“You’re not going to go broke playing the Palladium,” says the theater’s executive director Paul Wilborn.

Now and Then

The historic space didn’t start out as a theater. Built in 1925, the Palladium was originally a Christian Science church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Its white arches and cozy, tiled lobby ushered in religious St.… Read More

This year, St. Petersburg welcomes new Mayor Ken Welch, but he’s not the first member of the Welch family to play a starring role in this city’s government. David T. Welch was Mayor Welch’s father and a three-time city council member. Welch was first elected to the city council in 1981, making him the second African American council member in the city’s history. (The first was C. Bette Wimbish in 1969.) As an accountant, he owned Welch Tax Services and Accounting on 16th Street South and served as assistant director of fiscal affairs at St. Petersburg Vocational Technical Institute. He sang in the choir and taught Sunday school at Prayer Tower Church of God in Christ where his brother, Clarence, was pastor.… Read More

In the pre-dawn hours, before the onslaught of morning commuters, the Snell Isle Bridge rests. Long before the first rays of morning sun hit the tops of the tallest palms, figures emerge in the dark distance, one by one. Ghostlike, they come from every direction, gaining focus as streetlights reflect off the silver strips of their shoes and tank tops.

Who gets up this early?

It’s the morning runners. And they do mean runners; call them joggers at your peril. If you don’t know them, you might not understand. But if you know one, you probably know most of them – this tight-knit group of elite competitors for whom “going on a run” can mean 15 miles or more.… Read More

As you run, stroll, skate, or bike along the picturesque two-mile path bordering Coffee Pot Bayou across from Bird Island and Snell Isle, you may occasionally see a cluster of rapt spectators peering into the water across from a magnificent flowering tree at the intersection of 23rd Avenue NE and Coffee Pot Boulevard. Visitors excitedly nudge each other and wonder, “Can you see them? Are they there?” in hushed tones usually reserved for a sacred space.

What is going on? Passing traffic stops, children squeal, and adults quickly snap pictures on their phones as great whiskery snouts and paddle-like tails breach the water’s surface.… Read More

Before St. Petersburg was the Sunshine City, some early promoters tested a less beachy moniker: The City of Mounds. It might be surprising to learn that the area was dotted with Native American mounds of all sizes and shapes, most notably a complex of a least a dozen mounds close to the Tampa Bay shoreline around the vicinity of Booker Creek, Bayboro Harbor, and Mound Park Hospital, better known today as Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.

According to Robert J. Austin in an article published by the Florida Anthropological Society, the Shell Mound at Mound Park Hospital –  estimated to be about 20-25-feet tall with a diameter of 90-feet – was one of the most photographed mounds in Florida and a prominent tourist attraction for the growing City of St.… Read More

It must have been quite a sight to drive by the Museum of Fine Arts and see 120 Boston Terriers and their owners posing for a photo on the museum steps. Definitely a reason for a double-take. But this is St. Petersburg and we love our fur children so, it’s not really that surprising.

The occasion was the 4th annual Boston Terrier Pet Parade, held in December on the weekend closest to the anniversary of the Revolutionary War-era Boston Tea Party. Last year was the 248th anniversary of the infamous day when the ‘Sons of Liberty’ boarded a British ship and tossed a shipment of tea into Boston Harbor as a protest.… Read More