Pt. One, A Brief History

Peninsula

pen·in·su·la noun 

:a portion of land nearly surrounded by water and connected with a larger body by an isthmus ; also : a piece of land jutting out into the water whether with or without a well-defined isthmus. Accepted definition by me: An area of land with almost all of the emotional and geographical isolation of an island, with a very limited amount of escape routes.

In a nutshell, the peninsula of Florida was formed when the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and Gulf of Mexico subsided after the last ice-age. Some have called the land left in the wake a gift from God. I call their bluff, but I digress. Most of Florida’s populated history finds it inhabited by  many diverse indigenous groups; that is until the Europeans “discovered” this land of many swamps, heat, and mosquitos. I like to call this the beginning of the end, but again I digress. Hundreds of years later, land developers discovered the peninsula within the peninsula that would later become Pinellas County.

*”In 1875, General John Williams came down from Detroit and bought 2,500 acres of land on Tampa Bay. He envisioned a grand city with graceful parks and broad streets, the trademark of today’s St. Petersburg. The city’s first hotel was named after his birthplace, Detroit.

Thirteen years later, Peter Demens, a noble Russian aristocrat, brought the Orange Belt Railway to St. Petersburg. On June 8, 1888, the first train arrived, carrying empty freight cars and one passenger, a shoe salesman from Savannah. Built one rail at a time, with unpaid laborers and creditors threatening to lynch Demens all the way, the railroad finally chugged to St. Petersburg. Demens named the city after his birthplace, St. Petersburg, Russia.”

Because of the warm and humid climate, St. Petersburg was founded with intention of becoming a tourist and agricultural mecca. Essentially, with the exception of the agriculture and tourist industry, the confines of the Sunshine City have offered nothing to the world with regards to culture; that is unless you consider the stereotypical St. Petersburg (and the surrounding areas) beach bum as a definitive form of culture. If so, I now have shivers traveling down my spine.

*Content taken from www.stpete.org