|
|
Monday, February 8th, 2010
I’ve lived in St. Petersburg since I was four years old. And that was a pretty long time ago! When I was a kid, we lived in a neighborhood called Sheryl Manor, close to the Northwest Rec Center and just minutes from what is now Tyrone Square Mall. On weekends, we would always go to visit my Grandparents, who lived out in South Pasadena. Believe it or not, 66th Street, south of 22nd Avenue, was a rutted dirt road with power poles in the middle of the road. So we rarely took that route, choosing, instead, to take 22nd Avenue North to Park Street, then taking Park Street to South Pasadena.
And whenever we made that trip, just after we turned onto Park Street, I would see an old, large wooden sign that read, “Here Landed Narvaez”. There was some more information etched into the sign, but I couldn’t read it as we drove by. We moved too fast and the writing was too small. But it always fascinated me to see it there, ’cause it felt an awful lot like something that I was supposed to see in a history book, not in real life.
That sign didn’t last forever, but it’s been replaced by a fancier one now, and it’s been moved a little further south to Jungle Prada (to see a post that I published a few months back about a little piece of Jungle Prada, check out this link.) And somewhere during those years in which the old sign deteriorated, I managed to grow up and learn that there was actually a great deal of interesting history in St. Petersburg’s long-ago past, and that Narvaez and his 350 men were just one small piece of that history.
Friday, February 5th, 2010
Last weekend, there was a full moon. Not just any full moon, but a Wolf Moon! I’d never heard of a Wolf Moon before, so I guess I’ve lived a sheltered life or something. In any case, a Wolf Moon is the full moon when it’s at its closest point to the earth for the entire year. I went outside a couple of times, hoping to capture a great shot of this phenomenon, because it’s supposed to look some 30% brighter and 17% larger than any other full moon.
But, unfortunately for me, it was a very, very hazy night and the humidity caused the moon to be a blur. And, aside from that, I would really have had to go out when the moon was closer to the horizon to catch the best photo. And I did not.
Even so, I decided to post this photo, because the haze in the air, while blurring the moon itself, created a nice ring around the moon – something unusual in and of itself. Not spectacular, but nice…
 Wolf Moon (click on photo for full-sized image)
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
You see a lot of photographs of St. Petersburg’s downtown skyline. They’re usually taken from the Pier, because it’s right there and it gives one a nice view of the downtown area. But I was driving around Snell Isle recently and I came upon an empty lot with Tampa Bay frontage. I walked out to the water and saw downtown from a very different perspective than the one I’m used to. Here’s downtown St. Petersburg from a couple of miles away – a very pretty vista. Sometime, maybe on a full moon evening, I’d like to go back and take a nighttime shot of the same view…
 Downtown Skyline As Seen From Snell Isle (click on photo for full-sized image)
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
This photograph was taken from the sidewalk along Coffee Pot Bayou, shooting towards the southern corner of Snell Isle. The gorgeous home that you see was built by Perry Snell in the 1920’s, his fifth of six St. Petersburg homes. In 1939, the property was purchased by Wally Bishop, a famous cartoonist who produced the Muggs and Skeeter cartoon which ran in over 500 newspapers during its heyday.
The house is approximately 8,200 square feet and sits on almost one and a half acres of land. It’s a most beautiful home on an incredible piece of property, definitely worth a look sometime if you’re in the neighborhood. And, if you’re so inclined, this amazing home happens to be for sale right now – it’s been completely renovated and updated, but retains all of its original charm. If you think that this palatial property might make you happy, please give me a call right now! I’d love to drop whatever it is that I’m working on and arrange a showing for you!
If you like the look of Snell Isle, but would like to see something a bit more moderate, there are a number of other beautiful Mediterranean Revival homes on Snell Isle’s Tampa Bay waterfront that are available, too, if you’re in the market!
 Snell Isle Home (click on photo for full-sized image)
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Back in August, I published a post about the new Dali Museum under construction next to the Mahaffey Theater in downtown St. Petersburg. In that post, I showed a photo of the early stages of construction for the new museum building.
Now here we are, six months later, and there has been, as the museum folks might say, surreal progress! The shell of the new structure is complete, and the very Dali-esque glass sculptures that will define the look and feel of the museum, both inside and out, are morphing towards completion. It’s both a bizarre and a beautiful look, and I have to believe that Dali himself would have smiled upon this new museum.
If you’d like more information about the new Dali, follow this link to an FAQ page.
And if you’d like to drive by to take a look for yourself, just head downtown on First Avenue South until you reach the last north/south road, which runs along the edge of the bay, which is BayShore Drive. Take BayShore towards the south, and after you pass the marina and Al Lang Field, you’ll see the Mahaffey Theatre. Right after the Mahaffey is the new Dali. You can’t miss it!
 New Dali Coming to Life (click on photo for full-sized image)
Thursday, November 26th, 2009
A few days ago, an associate of mine called me to ask if I could pick up a client of hers – a woman who is purchasing a new condominium in St. Petersburg – and take her to an appointment. My associate had a closing with another client scheduled at the same time as the appointment, so she could not drive her. I was free, so I was happy to help out by playing chauffeur for a couple of hours. The appointment was one of those where the person who is planning to purchase a new condo goes to meet members of the board to be ‘approved’. The condominium that the woman is buying is in the Five Towns complex on 54th Avenue North, just east of Park Street.
On the way to Five Towns, we had about a half an hour to talk. I learned that this woman, who is of retirement age and who suffers from a degenerative disease, who is unable to drive a car, who walks with a cane, and who knows not one soul in St. Petersburg, had made the decision to move from her Boston home to a new city because she was ready for a change. She chose St. Petersburg after researching several Florida cities. She was impressed with the beauty of the city and the wide variety of cultural destinations and activities in St. Petersburg. She is excited about seeing the Dali museum, the Museum of Fine Art, and many of the other St. Petersburg fixtures that she’s read about.
I just can’t imagine doing such a thing. In her sixties, new city, no local friends, no support system, no established medical caregivers, no car. But here she was, ready to go. Making it happen. Undaunted. She’s a far, far braver soul than I.
And as we drove out of the complex after her approval and I turned onto 54th Avenue, I noticed the Horn of Plenty, the Cornucopia, planted firmly on the ground in the front of the complex. And it just felt like a perfect Thanksgiving message to me. I have family here, friends, a beautiful home, favorite places, business contacts, and familiarity with every nook and cranny of the city. My life is full and if anyone can lay claim to the proverbial Horn of Plenty, I qualify. For all of this, I am very thankful today.
I hope that you, too, have enough to fill a Cornucopia and that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
 Cornucopia (Click on photo for larger image)
Wednesday, November 25th, 2009
Today is a gray, rainy day in St. Petersburg. Not the kind of day that we usually have here. And certainly not the kind of day that draws visitors and new residents. But it’s for a good cause – it’s part of a front that’s pushing through, and the front is going to bring us a cool, dry, sunny, beautiful Thanksgiving Day, followed by several gorgeous days.
But since it is gray and gloomy today, I thought I’d post something not gray and not gloomy. St. Petersburg has many, many areas where you can live right on the water. Some of them, like the Venetian Isles neighborhood located in Northeast St. Petersburg, have lots that are built on canals, and the canals lead directly to the open waters of Tampa Bay. So there are no bridges to navigate and no height restrictions. You could dock a fishing boat, a luxury powered yacht, or a tall mast sailboat, and you’d still have the same easy access to the open waters of the Bay. And, if you feel like going further, just set sail for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and you’ll be out in the Gulf of Mexico, ready to head wherever your dreams might take you! If you like what you see in this photo and you’d like to know more about finding a home on the water, give me a call! I’ll be happy to show you what’s available in our beautiful city. My contact information is always available in the column on the right.
 Venetial Isles Canal (click on picture for larger image)
Sunday, November 15th, 2009
Some of the most beautiful buildings in St. Petersburg are places of worship. Up to now, I have avoided posting photographs of any of them, because I didn’t want it to appear as though I was biased either in favor of or against any particular religion. But as time goes on and I see more missed photo opportunities, I can’t pass them up any longer. And so, from now on, I will include an occasional photograph of a place of worship if it strikes my fancy.
I’ll begin with today’s post, and it is a photograph of St. Raphael’s Church on Snell Isle. It’s located at 1376 Snell Isle Boulevard, right next to the bridge that joins Snell Isle to Shore Acres. Often when I drive through that neighborhood, if the sun is in just the right place in the sky, the golden dome has such a gorgeous light that it just looks magical. It’s truly a beautiful church, and the setting right on the water just adds to it. If you’d like to learn about St. Raphael’s, you can visit their web site.
 St. Raphael's Church (click for larger image)
Saturday, November 14th, 2009
This is a tale of two houses. Both houses share the same address – 2408 Brevard Road Northeast. That’s located in Granada Terrace, a beautiful area of St. Petersburg that lies between Coffee Pot Boulevard NE and First Street NE and between 22nd Avenue NE and 25th Avenue NE. It was developed by Perry Snell, of Snell Isle fame. The original houses constructed in Granada Terrace were all of Mediterranean Revival design.
The first house was built in 1926, in the boom years of St. Petersburg’s early development. It was a smaller house than many of its grand neighbors, but even so, it was a two story beauty with rough stucco exterior, a great fireplace, original oak floors, and all the charm it needed to hold its own against its bigger, grander neighbors. But, aside from being a bit smaller than its neighbors, there was another difference. This house was a wood frame house with slats of wood lath nailed onto the framing and stucco applied over the wood lath. Most of the neighboring houses were constructed of stucco over hollow tile. And, as it turns out, the second method is a more stable construction method in the long term.
So, although the house was a great house and it had a good, long life, by the time it reached its 75th birthday in 2001, it was no longer a stable house. Although many repairs had been done over the years, the aging process was unstoppable and the house was nearing the end.
Within a couple of years the house was sold to a developer who had originally hoped to revitalize the house and add more square footage to it, bringing it back to health. But at each step along the way, new problems were found and it was finally determined that the house simply could not be saved. Because Granada Terrace is such a beautiful neighborhood and it’s only a block from Coffee Pot Boulevard, the lot was valuable enough to allow the original home to be demolished and a new home constructed. But the developer ran into an interesting obstacle – Granada Terrace is a Historic Preservation District, and that means that any significant change in the features or appearance of a house have to go through a process of review and approval by a board before they can be carried out – even changing the color of paint on the exterior walls requires approval. So you can imagine that the idea of demolishing a house and building a new one was daunting.
Eventually, approval was given and a new house was constructed – a modern, energy efficient, solid, beautiful home with all the features one might desire in a new home. And, in addition to all of that, the new house has something else that’s actually very unique and makes it even more special – because of the guidelines of the Historic Preservation District, the new house had to be constructed with an exterior that matched the ‘flavor’ and the ‘look and feel’ of the original 1926 house. It did not have to look identical, but it had to have a similar look.
The first photograph below is a shot of the original house that occupied the lot at 2408 Brevard Road Northeast. The second photograph below is a shot of the new house, constructed in 2006 – 2007.
Without wasting any more words, I’ll leave it to you to see for yourself how nicely the architect and builders did…
 2408 Brevard Rd NE Original (click for larger image)  2408 Brevard Rd NE 2006/2007 (click for larger image)
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Coconut Palms are a pretty common sight in South Florida. Starting in the Sarasota area, they grow very nicely along the beaches and shoreline, and the further south from there that you go, the more common it is to see them growing. According to the University of Florida’s Extension site, “The fruit can float for long distances and still germinate to form new trees after being washed ashore.” So, it’s not surprising that we see them growing along the shoreline. But another reason that they do well there is that they are very much a warmth-loving tree, and by growing next to a bay or a gulf, they are likely to experience a climate that is several degrees warmer than it would be just a few miles inland, lowering the odds that they might experience a hard freeze.
Coconut Palms will do just fine with a cold spell now and then. But what they can’t stand is a hard freeze that lasts for any length of time – a borderline freeze might just kill the existing palm fronds, but a serious one will kill the entire tree. And for that reason, you don’t see too many Coconut Palms in the St. Petersburg area. We don’t have long duration hard freezes very often, but all it takes is one every twenty or thirty years to discourage anyone from planting these trees.
But some brave souls do plant them. And one such planting is in a seemingly unlikely spot – next to the parking garage at the International Headquarters of Raymond James Financial in the Carillon Center in north St. Petersburg. When Raymond James expanded from their original two buildings to add a third and fourth ‘Tower’, they landscaped a large portion of the grounds with trees that produce fruit. There are several citrus trees in one area of the grounds, and there are a few coconut trees planted alongside the parking garage. I suspect that they’re close to the garage to help shield them from the full effect of a potential freeze – the interior and the walls of the garage would likely retain some of the day’s heat and help to keep the trees a few degrees warmer. But whatever the reason, they are there, and they have matured to the point where they bear their ‘fruit’ quite regularly, and it’s a fun sight to see!
 Coconut Palms at Raymond James (click for larger image)  A Closer View (click for larger image)
|
|
