A History of Waterfront Parks in St. Petersburg

Share

For 100 years, St. Petersburg has been known for its downtown public parks along the water’s edge. The Waterfront Centennial Committee is commemorating the occasion by honoring the civic leaders who made this possible. Last night was the first part of a series by the Florida Humanities Council called “Perspectives on the Parks.” A few dozen people went to the discussion at the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute.

St. Petersburg history buffs took a step back in time last night, as actors portrayed local railroad pioneer Peter Demens and founder of the St. Petersburg Audubon Society Katherine Bell Tippetts. The performance harkened back to a time when commercial interests were still competing with public space in St. Petersburg, before the city was known for its public parks. Following the act was a panel discussion with former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, and past president of St. Pete Preservation Will Michaels. Peter Belmont is vice President of St. Pete Preservation, and helped organize the panel discussion.

Bruce Stevenson has written a book called Visions of Eden, and tells how St. Pete parks were inspired by the French Riviera and the Chicago World’s Fair.

The Olmsteads restored the Charles River, a process which Stephenson compared to modern day Everglades restoration efforts.

And Stephenson said St. Petersburg’s parks have inspired waterfront improvement statewide.

Rachel Calderon is a member of the Historic Preservation Society, and a self described snowbird. She enjoyed learning about the park history.

The proposal of a new baseball stadium on the waterfront is just one of many ongoing waterfront parks concerns. There are three more events scheduled for the Parks series. The next one is in the beginning of April, and will recall how segregation affected waterfront park access in recent times. For more information about the Waterfront Parks centennial celebration, go to stpeteparks100.org.

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

You may also like

Governor DeSantis touts state immigration enforcement at Tampa press conference

Listen: Governor Ron DeSantis is touting the state’s partnership with...

The Scoop: Mon. May 12, 2025, Tampa Bay and Florida headlines by WMNF

St. Petersburg celebrating three bills passed by Florida senate, Starbucks...

Check out the images from one of the hottest Tropical Heatwave shows ever!

Photos of Chuck Prophet, Skating Polly, Sue Foley, Zach Person...

Heavy rains continue with floods possible

Rainfall totals will range between 2 and 4 inches. However,...

Ways to listen

WMNF is listener-supported. That means we don't advertise like a commercial station, and we're not part of a university.

Ways to support

WMNF volunteers have fun providing a variety of needed services to keep your community radio station alive and kickin'.

Traffic Jam Monday
Traffic Jam Monday