The History of St. Pete Beach
by Christina Tourigny



The history of St. Petersburg Beach and Pass-A-Grille Beach are as intertwined as grape vines on a trellis. The incorporation, under the name St. Petersburg Beach, was not welcomed by many of the locals. The community was divided many long time residents wanted it to remain Pass-A-Grille. Protests and arguments broke out on both sides. The Grillers organized a motorcade of 50 cars two days before the referendum and drove into St. Petersburg Beach determined to demonstrate their opposition to the change. But ultimately on July 9, 1957 this section of the west gulf coast beaches known as Long Key became St. Petersburg Beach.

Sailors and pirates first settled the Gulf coast beaches back in the 1700's. Today much of its colorful, if unsavory, history remains in stories and folklore about infamous pirates who roamed offshore for over a decade. During the 1700 and 1800's it was common to find ship wrecks along these beaches where hotels, motels and condominiums now stand.

The first settlement is known to be a fishing rancho. These ranchos consisted of a collection of huts frequented by sailors, as a latter day vacation retreat. Even then St. Petersburg Beach was a tourist destination.

Today, according to St. Petersburg Beach City Planner, Jerry Speece, there are 9,200 full-time residents living on approximately eight and one-half square miles that falls within the city limits. During the season from November to April the population increases by three to four thousand. The discovery of these white sand beaches is credited to the Spaniards during the 16th century and Panfilo De Narvaes, who it is said anchored off Pass-A-Grille for two days before exploring further inland. De Narvaes looking to find Tampa inadvertly wandered into a large body of water that he named Baia de la Cruz, or Bay of the Cross. Today this is known as Boca Ciega Bay which forms the western bounty of St. Petersburg Beach.

The first permanent settler was Capt. William Bunce, who in 1837, found the idea of a fishing rancho appealing. Setting up on a small unnamed island, that accessed a channel between his rancho and Pass-A-Grille. The channel was later named Bunce Pass, and despite the danger from snakes and local pirates Bunce did a booming business. In all Bunce had 40 structures on the island. Between the months of October and April he sold salt mullet and roe in Havana and Key West. Netting Bunce some 5,000 - 6,000 thousand dollars per season. A Baltimore Sea Captain and Key West merchant he was a signer of Florida's first constitution. After his death the rancho was destroyed, considered by the U.S. Army, to be a hiding place for renegade Spaniards. The island is now part of Ft. DeSoto Park.

On September 25, 1848 winds whipped around the Gulf of Mexico at barely hurricane force coming in from the southwest. The 72-mile an hour winds ran along the beaches, the eye slightly offshore, driving the tides to recorded highs of 15-feet. As the eye passed the winds changed to a northwesterly direction and brought the tides back across the beaches. Everything from Sanibel to Bayport and across to St. Petersburg and Tampa was flooded. Egmont Key Lighthouse, with keeper Marvel Edwards watched as the tide rolled over the islands. The 120-foot tower, made of concrete and brick foundation was undermined by the rushing water and Edwards ran for his life. Putting his family into a rowboat, they reached the center of the island. He tied the small craft to a palm tree, during the night the boat with his family aboard rose almost to the top of the tree. Old timers refer to it as the Great Gale, incredibly no one was killed, channels and passes shifted and some ceased to exist, replaced instead by sand. The charts so painstakingly created by the Spaniards were now useless, Two St. Petersburg residents, Joe Silca and John Levach, prior to the storm had headed out to New Orleans to sell their greenback turtles, on their return the weather drove them to shelter along the coast of Florida. Returning to St. Petersburg Beach, Levach found an entirely different shoreline. He managed to find a new and navigable pass some 830-feet wide, his partner deemed it John's Pass. Nicknamed "French John," he was the first to sail through the new channel and since that day residents always referred to it as John's Pass. Levach died in 1869, today John's Pass is littered with boats, shops, restuarants and marina's all bearing his name on both sides of the channel. One of the beaches most incredible characters was John Gomez, described in Frank Hurley's, "Surf, Sand and Post Card Sunsets," as "the mildest man to ever scuttle a ship or cut a throat." He was the last of the pirates who returned to Long Key in 1897 to retrieve what is believed to be a buried treasure.

Gomez proceeded to put up tables and benches and hosted fishing trips and picnics. He quickly learned how to amuse visitors for profit. Telling outlandish stories of how he put to sea as a boy of ten, turning pirate, smuggler and scout for General Zacharry Taylors at the Battle of Okeechobee. He had a rampant imagination and one fateful evening treated his guest to a story he invented about a notorious pirate named Jose Gaspar. Today the invention of Jose Gaspar is celebrated as a daylong event with pirates invading the city of Tampa. Gomez died in 1900 but he and his adventures live on each February during Tampa's Gasparilla Festival and is enjoyed by 100's of thousands annually.

In the year of 1861 a young man, Roy Hanna, came to Florida and eventually became a lawyer and deputy collector and inspector of the port of St. Petersburg. Hanna dreamed of turning the almost deserted beaches of Pass-A-Grille into a marina and resort where visitors could travel to by boat in search of island adventure. A determined Hanna struck a partnership with George B. Hanies and Ransom B. Miles into helping his cause to raise $400. Unable to raise the funds a deal was struck with another investor Selwyn Morey and the land was purchased. Plots were laid out and plans made to provide boat transportation to bring would-be buyers to Pass-A-Grille. One thousand people showed up to board the boat and sail to Pass-A-Grille, 400 more than expected. Over loaded the boat ran aground and did not reach the beaches till until late in the afternoon.

Hungry handfuls of potential buyers jumped ashore for food, then undressed and went swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Although they enjoyed the swimming and the food, the auction never took place. And 1,000 people got back on the boat to Tampa without one person purchasing a lot. Hanna undaunted approached James Forquer, manager of the Detroit Hotel in St. Petersburg about building a floating barge for fisherman. Two barges containing 16 rooms were constructed and anchored off Pine Key in the fall of 1895, becoming Pass-A-Gille's first hotel. Three years later in 1898, the Army would build a fort on Mullet Key to protect the island from Spain, which would be called Ft. DeSoto. Despite the threat of the Seminole Indians Wars, tourist from England guided by George Lizotte toured the Tampa Bay area. The visitors found the seaport city of Tampa lacking and their guide took them to the Pinellas peninsula. This side trip by Lizotte would inadvertently change the course of the gulf beaches history. Upon his arrival he found nothing of interest but saw the potential for a resort. In 1899 he purchased three lots in Pass-A-Grille and a house east of his lots. The following winter he renovated the home into a 10-room hotel called the "Bonhomie". Feeding his visitors seven-course meals, from soup to nuts, and all the stone crab claws you could eat for 50-cents. News of the "Bonhomie", and Pass-A-Grille traveled and soon ships and boats made frequent stops at the island, bring supplies along with guests to the hotel. Tarpon fishing was abundant in those days and soon Lizotte had 10 rowboats for sports fishermen. So plentiful were the tarpon that he promised a free room for any guest who did not land a tarpon.

At this time there were only four homes on the island. In 1903 Joseph Merry opened a store and the end of a dock that he, Hanna and Lizotte had constructed on the end of Pass-A-Grille Way, a first for the beaches. The "Bonhomie" was the site of the first post office, located in the lobby and opened in 1905. Followed the next year by the first bath house and by 1907 Pass-A-Grille found itself with two hotels. The second built by Anna C. Hartley, grand by comparison to it for-runner the "Bonhomie", it was 400-feet wide and named the Hotel La Plaza. Twenty-two years later the Don Cesar would be constructed but until then the Hotel La Plaza was the beach's grandest. Constructed in Victorian style, verandas surrounded the hotel and provided guests with rockers and shade.

Today, St. Petersburg Beach's most famous landmark is without question the Don Cesar Hotel. Viewed from the Gulf of Mexico, in the 1920's, it must have been a fabulous sight, standing alone and elegant on white sand shores. The hotel was the brainchild of Thomas Rowe and would become a famous landmark for the gulf beaches. Construction began in September 1925 on 80-acres, which was to be part sub-division. The centerpiece the Don Cesar. Originally planed as a 5-story hotel with Rowes' revisions it became 10-stories with 312 rooms and 312 bathrooms. Rowe ran short on cash but industrialist, Warren Webster lent him the monies to furnish the hotel. The first paying guest checked in on January 10, 1928. The gala dinner, held to mark the formal opening was an elaborate dinner-dancing affair with 1,500 guests in attendance. Finished cost of Rowes' dream was $1,500,000 and 21 months later the stock market crashed, leaving his dreams and the hotel covered in debt.

When the hotel first opened the room rates were $24.00 per night but with the depression Rowe had to cut back to $8 per night including meals and still the hotel was half empty. Yet the tourist continued to swarm to the beaches. During the 1930's the Don Cesar revived and the register was abundant with famous signatures like Clarence Darrow, Henry King, the Gimbles of Bloomingdales, David Brewster, V.P. of MGM and F. Scott Fizgerald. The "Pink Palace", as it was commonly called, survived and during the war years was used as a hospital for injured soldiers. In 1946 the Don Cesar became the headquarters for the Veterans Administration regional office. Its lavish rooms stripped bare and painted government green. But the Don Cesars claim to fame, with its healthy gulf breezes ultimately became its downfall. Deteriorating by the 1960's to the point it was not economically feasible for the government to keep up. They pulled out, leaving it abandoned, broken windows allowed birds and people a safe and free haven. It turned from the gem of the beaches to an eyesore. Some residents wanted to bulldoze the Don and use the rubble as a jetty. A "Save the Don Committee" was formed, and the city united around June Hurley, chairman, to find a use for the Don. It ultimately wound up in the hands of William Bowman Jr., and his Beach Resorts International.

On November 24, 1973 after spending $3,500,000 and 18 months of hard work, Bowman reopened the Don Cesar. In 1975 it was added to the National Registry of Historic Places. Today, visitors can still see the Don from the Gulf of Mexico. Amid all the other hotels, condo's and shopping centers the Don stands proud, enduring and leaving its mark in the events that shaped the history and the future of St. Petersburg Beach.

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