James Anthony Schnur Books

Known as the Sunshine City, St. Petersburg gained notoriety as a popular destination for seasonal residents during the Florida real estate boom of the 1920s. However, the history of footprints along with shoreline spans thousands of years. Long before the first contact with Spanish conquistadors during the sixteenth century, indigenous cultures flourished along the abundant estuaries and left shell mounds and pottery as evidence of their settlements. After these original inhabitants disappeared, occasional fishing parties from Cuba and the Caribbean visited a largely uninhabited peninsula along Florida's west coast. Indeed, fewer than 500 people resided along the entire Pinellas peninsula on the eve of the Civil War. Throughout the twentieth century, waves of settlers, tourists, and residents encountered a colorful array of speculators and developers. Sometimes known as a winter wonderland for snowbird retirees, St. Petersburg tried to reinvent itself after pundits referred to the city as God's waiting room by the early 1960s. Fifty years later, much has changed. This book offers a visual portrait of St. Petersburg since the early 1900s. Historical and contemporary photographs in four chapters illustrate St. Petersburg's waterfront heritage, the transformation of its downtown, the establishment of neighborhoods near downtown, and the city's expansion in more recent years

Long before condominiums appeared on the Florida coastline, itinerant fishing parties visited the barrier islands along the Pinellas peninsula. Fewer than 200 people lived in present-day Pinellas County in September 1848, when a destructive hurricane carved Johns Pass. Developers first focused their efforts along the inlet with a settlement known as Mitchell Beach in the early 1910s, but it had only limited success since no bridges connected the island to the mainland. The first bridge opened along Welch Causeway in 1926, and electricity came to the island a few years later. Small, scattered settlements took shape along Johns Pass and near 150th Avenue before World War II, but widespread development did not begin until the incorporation of Madeira Beach in 1947. By the 1950s, subdivisions sprouted up along islands dredged from Boca Ciega Bay. Today, condominiums have replaced most beach cottages.

Seminole may be the "youngest" incorporated municipality in Pinellas County, but the community has a long and established history. Voters approved the creation of the city on November 15, 1970, and over the last 40-plus years Seminole has expanded through responsible patterns of development and annexation as the area has become a preferred residential and business destination in Greater Tampa Bay. The city's name honors the Native Americans who came to Florida during the 18th century. Settlers began to arrive in the Seminole area in small numbers after the Civil War, attracted by the excellent drainage and higher elevation along the ridge. Agricultural opportunities expanded with the opening of the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railway in late 1914, and citrus groves soon proliferated. The area's residential development accelerated after the Second World War.