St. Petersburg has honored many of its citizens with the title of “Mr. Baseball.” There was of course the first Mr. Baseball, Mayor Al Lang, after whom Al Lang Stadium is named. It was Al who mostly started it all by bringing Major League Spring Training to the city beginning with the St. Louis Browns and their manager Branch Ricky in 1914. Much later there was Mr. Baseball Bob Stewart and Mr. Baseball Rick Dodge, both of whom piloted the building of Tropicana Stadium, which led to securing the Tampa Bay Rays in 1995 (their opening season was 1998). Stewart was chairperson of the St.… Read More

The real magic happens right here in St. Petersburg – and the spark that ignites it emanates from long-time Old Northeast resident Roger Barganier, owner of Creative Arts Unlimited. Barganier conjures his magic from clients’ ideas that come to fruition through far-reaching concepts of design, building, and installation.

“We are more a service than a product,” says Barganier. The jaw-dropping results of Creative Arts Unlimited “services” enthrall those who experience them in the museums, healthcare facilities, corporate headquarters, hospitality venues, education settings, libraries, theme parks, nature centers, and retail environs where they’re featured.

When Old Northeast resident Jay Miller told his parents that he was buying a house in the neighborhood 22 years ago, his mother Sonya gave a wry laugh. When he asked why, she had to remind him that when she was growing up in St. Petersburg, the Old Northeast was off limits to their family – in its early years, the neighborhood, like much of the city, was not welcoming to Jews. 

Jay’s aunt, his mother’s sister, Marilyn Benjamin, recalled a similar story over a recent lunch at the Helm Restaurant in St. Pete Beach. “I remember when the Vinoy Hotel had its grand re-opening in 1992, after being closed for many years.… Read More

It took a master falconer from Georgia to open my eyes to the natural gem just four miles from my home in the Old Northeast. It was one of those glorious winter days that makes you realize why everyone moves to Florida; a deep freeze had struck much of the nation, while St. Pete enjoyed blue skies and low 70-degree temperatures. Our family decided to go to Raptor Fest at the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, an event we’d heard rave reviews of over the years, but never attended. After strolling past volunteers holding all manner of curious birds, we hurried to a set of grandstands set up for a “free flight” demonstration.… Read More

If you build it, they will come. No, not baseball-playing ghosts. Pollinators! Bees, butterflies, birds…the list goes on, and includes mosquitoes (they don’t all bite!), bats (who suffer from seriously bad PR), and countless other four-footed and two-winged creatures that can fight climate change. That’s right: If you want to fight climate change, find a way to attract pollinators to your garden. 

Healthy soil traps carbon, which helps moderate climate change. Worried about sea level rise? Every native pollinator plant in your landscape provides a metaphorical sandbag against the rising waters. Of course, it will take plenty of pollinators to reverse things, but every purple coneflower helps. … Read More

The story of the preservation of our city’s historic 1920s-era Vinoy Park Hotel is well documented. Not so well known is how preservation of the Vinoy led to the preservation of many other historic places throughout the city and continues to do so.

In 1945 the Vinoy Hotel was acquired from its founder Amyer Vinoy Laughner by hotelier Charles Alberding of Chicago. Maintenance of the hotel had deteriorated over the years, and Alberding tried to bring it back to its former glory without success. Beginning in 1972, Alberding began leasing the hotel to interested investors. In 1984 a partnership composed of B.… Read More

Kathy Turner Lee remembers hollering to her mother, “Going over to the gardens,” as she ran out her front door on 18^th Avenue and to a side gate that led into Sunken Gardens. In the 1950s and ‘60s, Sunken Gardens may have been one of the most famous roadside attractions in Florida, but to Lee, the four-acre tropical oasis was just the family business that her grandparents, George and Eula Turner, Sr., founded decades before. It was like an extension of her own backyard.  

“The gardens were a big part of my childhood,” Lee recalls. “My brother and I would run around by ourselves and no one thought anything of it.”… Read More

Piers and St. Petersburg are virtually synonymous. The city was founded by John and Sarah Williams and Peter Demens in 1888. The Williams owned the land and had visions of a great city. Back then, in order to be a great city a railroad was required. Peter Demens, owner of the Orange Belt Railway, agreed to route his fledgling railroad to the new city in exchange for a prime share of the anticipated new downtown real estate. Part of the deal was that he would extend his railroad tracks out over a pier reaching water 12 feet deep to allow cargo exchange between ships and the train.… Read More

Getting around the bay area without a car keeps getting more interesting. We have scooter and bike rentals, a seasonal ferry, trollies, and even an old-fashioned streetcar. Now, St. Pete boasts an innovative way to whisk residents and visitors through some of the city’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Of course, I’m referring to the new SunRunner, the Bus Rapid Transit Route (BRT) that takes riders from downtown to St. Pete Beach.  

Spend more than a few minutes with someone in our house and you’ll start hearing about how much we love the new SunRunner. I’ve been accused of being on the PSTA payroll, but I assure readers that the only thing PSTA has given me is a ride.… Read More

You may not be personally familiar with Peter Belmont, but chances are you’ve come across the fruits of his 40 years of volunteer labor in St. Petersburg. Have you ever attended Movies in the Park? Or taken a walking tour with Preserve the ‘Burg? Maybe you’ve shopped in the Crislip Arcade or sipped a drink on the verandah of the Vinoy. If so, then you’ve had a brush with Belmont’s legacy. Over his decades of activism, Belmont has left such a mark on the city that his recent cancer diagnosis prompted a flurry of efforts by friends and admirers to honor his work.… Read More