Celebrating Thanksgiving in St. Pete a Century Ago

Ever since Lincoln declared an annual day of Thanksgiving in 1863, it became customary for presidents to issue a Proclamation of Thanksgiving each year. And in 1925, Calvin Coolidge did so on October 26th. His proclamation spoke to a year of national prosperity, noting that the nation was blessed with “resources whose potentiality in wealth is almost incalculable” and that the nation’s people “should set ourselves against evil and strive for righteousness in living, and observing the Golden Rule we should from our abundance help and serve those less fortunately placed.” (Coolidge incidentally made a visit to St. Pete with his wife Grace after he left office and stayed at the Vinoy Hotel. According to hotel lore he did not like the rich food served in the hotel dining room and ate simpler fare with the staff in the cafeteria.)

The year 1925 was a time of unparalleled prosperity for St. Petersburg. The city by then had fully recovered from the Great Hurricane of 1921. Babe Ruth arrived in March with the Yankees for spring training. The Vinoy and Jungle Country Club hotels and Flor de Leon cooperative apartment building opened. Derby Lane, located at the Gateway (and now again being mentioned as a possible site for a new Rays stadium), ran its first greyhound races; prominent Black builder, developer, and entrepreneur Elder Jordan began construction of the Manhattan Casino on the Deuces; C. Perry Snell launched Snell Isle; Bayboro Harbor opened to shipping with its dredging providing landfill to create Albert Whitted Airport; the St. Petersburg Times ran 25 million lines of advertising, mostly involving real estate; and overall, the city increased its size north and south by almost 40 square miles and issued a record number of building permits valued at some $24 million (unadjusted for inflation). This prosperity was not to last. The bottom would fall out of the city real estate market two years later, and that would be followed by the Great Depression. But in 1925, many in the city had much to be thankful for as they approached the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Surprisingly William Straub, editor of the St. Petersburg Times, predecessor of the Tampa Bay Times, did not offer a Thanksgiving editorial, but instead published a McClure Syndicate column by a Dr. Frank Crane. Dr. Crane reflected on how those living in 1925 had much to be thankful for as they were living in a better time than those who lived 100 years before. He noted that the country was now free of slavery and that dueling had been ended. He lauded the enactment of Prohibition, although allowed that liquor could still be obtained. He wrote that overall people were drinking less as “the average person cannot afford to pay 50 cents or a dollar for a drink of liquor that formerly cost 10 cents.” He noted that the world was warmer, not because of climate change, but because of the invention of the radiator. He wrote that formerly wars were undertaken as “predatory excursions,” but while “we are far from having attained the goal of universal peace…at least war has become more and more a remote possibility.” Crane concluded that, “A man has to be thankful that he lives in 1925 and not in 1825, and he can look forward to a better world for his children.”

 To kick off the Thanksgiving season the Times held an essay contest for school children.  The paper enthusiastically reported that “Boys and Girls Did Exceedingly Well with Stories on the National Holiday” and that nearly every school won an honor. Ten-year-old Alice Porter of Roser Park won first place. She declared, “Next to Christmas I like Thanksgiving Day best of all holidays.”

  Central Primary School, at 140 5th St. N near today’s City Hall, was transformed into an Indian settlement. “There were tepees, Indian chiefs with their fancy feathered head gear, squaws with their blankets wrapped closely around them and the warriors with their tomahawks. The dramatization of Hiawatha was especially well presented and the Indian dance with their war whoops showed very clever training…. Each class was represented in dialogue or song. There were the little Pilgrim matrons; 10 little peppers, 11 little girls each bearing a letter the whole spelling Thanksgiving and each carried a poster to represent a part of the Thanksgiving dinner.”

A highlight of Thanksgiving Day was St. Petersburg High School’s Green Devils football team game against Fort Myers played at Waterfront Park. The Green Devils crushed Fort Myers 26 to 0, their ninth consecutive win, clenching the 1925 state scholastic championship. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, they were honored with a special dinner at a table decorated as a football field. It was reported “the team was handicapped as far as enjoying the repast because of training rules.” One could not tell it from the Fort Myers game. The Green Devil’s outweighed Fort Myers 20 pounds to the man.

Of course, the real main event of the day was Thanksgiving dinner. For many this meant a home-cooked family meal. Grocers and butchers advertised their stock with prices. “Turkeys, 60 cents a pound; chickens, 42 to 45 cents; oysters $1 a quart; raw shrimps, 25 cents a pound; peeled and cooked shrimps 60 cents a pound; cranberries, 36 cents a quart; mince meat, 35 cents a pound; …onions, three pounds for a quarter; potatoes, five and six cents a pound; green peppers, 40 cents a dozen; pumpkins, 50 to 60 cents each; celery, 20 to 25 cents a bunch; parsnips, 15 cents a pound; canned peas 18 to 30 cents; fresh spinach, 20 cents a pound; parsley, 10 cents a bunch; oranges, 25 to 30 cents a dozen; bananas, 35 cents a dozen; grapefruit, three for 10 cents; avocado pears, 60 to 90 cents each; fancy pineapples, 30 cents each.” It was also noted that “young onions are not yet in the market and avocado pears are scarce at the present time.” 

 These figures are as reported in 1925 and not adjusted for inflation. Generally, it would take $18 now to buy what you could get for a dollar in 1925. If you adjust for inflation the cost of some of these items would be considerably higher in 1925 than now. For example, that turkey at 60 cents a pound would come to over $10 a pound, compared to $2.39 a pound for a frozen turkey in the local Publix. On the other hand, potatoes cost $1.08 a pound in 1925 compared to $1.79 in the local Publix. Overall, the relative picture for groceries and household staples is mixed. In addition to the cost of food, other factors need to be considered such as taxes and the relative cost of housing, which were significantly lower in 1925. As reported in U. S. News and World Report average annual income in the 1920s stretched further then than now thanks to overall higher purchasing power and lower tax rates. And in St. Petersburg in the 1920s as today, residents could always cast a line into the bay or Gulf and carry home fresh fish for nothing.

Some food items were particularly celebrated. In addition to turkey and pumpkin pie, for example, there was mince pie. A connoisseur at the Times wrote this enthusiastic description, declaring mince pie an “indispensable part of the Thanksgiving menu.”  

“A true mince pie should be an inch thick, with a thin flaky crust, tinted by its imprisoned juices, which threaten to break through like blood from overfull veins. Around the edge must be a light crinkle made by the tines of a fork or castor-bottle cover; and in its top a hole here and there from the stroke of a knife to let the steam out. This steam, once known, can never be forgotten—the intermingled exhalation of beef and pork or suet, and apple and raisins and citron and sugar and spices and boiled cider, and in profane families, of a dash of brandy. When you press its upper crust, there should gush up from the slashes a brown gravy sparkling with tiny globules of fat and deliciously scenting the room. Fortunate they who have been permitted to relish, with a slice of cream cheese, and a mug of sweet cider, this beautiful bless giving pie!”

Speaking of that dash of brandy, the Times also ran an article from Universal News Service two days before Thanksgiving about California’s Prohibition Administrator. The administrator had ruled that no restrictions would be placed on brandies used as flavorings for Thanksgiving mince pies, plum puddings, sauces, and “such things.” “All we ask is that the chefs use their own judgment,” he said. “Of course, if they try to bake a quart of brandy inside of a pie crust, we’ll have to arrest them, outside of that, anything within reason will go.”

Thanksgiving was also a peak day for restaurants. Just a few of those advertising included the Butler Arms Hotel, Childs Restaurant, Daffodil Eat Shop, West Coast Inn, Morgan Hotel, Ye Hitching Post, Ponce de Leon, Hotel Alidu, Gangplank, Cotton Top Tea Room, Royal Palm Cafeteria, Margaret’s Restaurant, Gateway Tea Room, Princess Martha Hotel, Park Cafeteria, and the Poinsettia Hotel Café. Prices ranged from $1 to $1.50 ($18 to $27 in today’s money). 

President Coolidge’s Proclamation called for the nation to “help and serve those less fortunately placed.” This call was taken up in St. Petersburg by many. Interestingly, county government included a paid social worker who sought to organize the many churches and other groups donating food to needy families and individuals. One such organization was the Salvation Army. In addition to providing disadvantaged families with Thanksgiving baskets, the Salvation Army also delivered sandwiches and cake to every prisoner in the Clearwater jail and held a Thanksgiving service there. Children in schools also pitched in. Students at Central Primary School collected pennies to be sent to the Jacksonville Orphanage.

Such was the observance of that Thanksgiving holiday 100 years ago in our fair city. And, at least in the local paper, there was no mention of Christmas until two days later when the Alhambra Arcade, at 6th Street and First Avenue North, announced its annual Christmas opening including a tea dance. “All the shops are displaying Christmas gifts.” Alice Porter, winner of the Times essay contest celebrating Thanksgiving, was about to enjoy her most favorite holiday.

Will Michaels is the former director and trustee of the St. Petersburg Museum of History. He is the author of The Making of St. Petersburg and the Hidden History of St. Petersburg. He will be celebrating Thanksgiving with family at his son Mark’s home. Reach him at wmichaels2222@gmail.com.