Yesterday, I published a post about the Euclid Station Post Office in St. Petersburg, at the corner of 34th Avenue North/Haines Road/Dr. ML King Jr Street North.  I talked about the fact that the Post Office is on the list for consideration to be shut down by the United States Postal Service.  And I showed a photo of local residents attending a petition drive that was held there, where people could sign a petition to voice their hopes that the Euclid Post Office be saved.

Today’s post is a tiny little piece of history trivia.  For you who are not St. Petersburg residents and don’t know the area, I beg your indulgence – this post won’t likely interest you, so mabye you should come back tomorrow!

But for those who do live in St. Petersburg and who know the area of the city where this Post Office is located, have you ever wondered why it’s called the Euclid Post Office?

The answer can be seen in the snip of headline from the May 12th, 1924 edition of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent that I’ve included to the left of this text.  In truth, it’s not really a news headline – it’s a headline for an advertisement for Real Estate.  The copy in the ad read like this: 

 ”St. Petersburg’s new white way will be Euclid Boulevard,  Ninth Street North.  Many new stores and buildings are being erected on this highway because the trend of business is rapidly turning this way.”

“Each day sees increased activities in buying along Euclid Boulevard for the reason that it is already an important traffic artery and is becoming more so each day.”

“Good judges of Real Estate values predict that Euclid Boulevard will be one of the principal ways into St. Petersburg from the Gandy Bridge.  They contend that traffic will split at North St. Petersburg, the greater part of this coming in over the new county road and Euclid Boulevard.  This being very reasonable — it is acting as a stimulus to all property values along this way.” 

That ad copy from an 85 year old newspaper tells the story – the road that is now known as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street North, that used to be known as Ninth Street North, was originally known as Euclid Boulevard.

I found references to Euclid Boulevard spanning over a period of more than thirty years, so it was a well established street name in our city for quite some time. I don’t know exactly why or when the Euclid name was dropped and the road began being referred to as Ninth Street North, but maybe it was a part of the city’s plan to simplify and standardize all of our street and avenue names. 

Or maybe this little piece of St. Petersburg Police Department history had something to do with the name change: From the August 24th, 1952 edition of the St. Petersburg Times, in an article about the opening of our new Police Station, there was mention of someone who had a problem with spelling. “A classic bit of humor of that early day was the story they told on a patrolman who had been sent out to Euclid Boulevard to remove a dead horse. He couldn’t spell Euclid or Boulevard, so he dragged the horse over to Grove Street. And then wrote his report: ‘Found dead horse on Grove Street, removed same.’

We may never know the reason for the name change, but it’s fun looking back in time and seeing St. Petersburg through the eyes of those who lived here a long, long time ago…