St. Petersburg History Guide

St. Petersburg grew from 2,500 acres John Constantine Williams bought in 1875 and from Peter Demens's Orange Belt Railroad, which reached the settlement in 1888; the town incorporated on February 29, 1892.

The City of St. Petersburg history page says Williams, from Detroit, moved to Tampa in 1875 and bought 2,500 acres of waterfront land that would become St. Petersburg, then transferred part of it thirteen years later to Peter Demens in exchange for extending the Orange Belt Railroad (City of St. Petersburg, History of St. Pete). The first train arrived in St. Petersburg in 1888, carrying empty freight cars and a single passenger (History of St. Pete).

The name comes with a legend the city repeats: Williams and Demens flipped a coin to decide who would name the place, and Demens won and named it after Saint Petersburg, Russia, while Williams named the first hotel after his birthplace, Detroit (History of St. Pete). St. Petersburg was incorporated as a town on February 29, 1892, and in 1903, with only a few hundred residents, it reincorporated as a city (History of St. Pete).

The Digital Towns St. Petersburg founding guide covers this pioneer era in depth, and the notable residents guide profiles Williams and Demens alongside later figures from St. Pete arts and letters.

Indigenous tribes lived around Tampa Bay for generations before Spanish explorers arrived in the 1500s, and settlers set up St. Petersburg area homesteads in the 1830s and 1840s.

The City of St. Petersburg history page says the Tampa Bay area was home to generations of Indigenous tribes before the first white settlers, that Spanish explorers came and went in the 1500s, and that homesteaders planting citrus and raising animals arrived in the 1830s and 1840s (History of St. Pete).

Pinellas County, a separate government from the City of St. Petersburg, traces its own name to that Spanish era: Pinellas comes from the Spanish Punta Pinal, meaning point of pines, the description of the area when Panfilo de Narvaez arrived in 1528 (Pinellas County, About Pinellas). Pinellas became the 48th Florida county on January 1, 1912, after a local referendum passed calling for separation from Hillsborough County (About Pinellas).

The Digital Towns St. Petersburg Spanish colonial period guide covers European contact on the peninsula and what the material record shows.

Spring training and the first airline flight across Tampa Bay in 1914, the 1920s boom and the Gandy Bridge, New Deal projects, World War II training and 1950s air conditioning shaped twentieth century St. Petersburg.

In 1914 former mayor Al Lang convinced Branch Rickey to bring the St. Louis Browns to St. Petersburg for spring training, and the same year Tony Jannus flew his Benoist airplane across Tampa Bay in 23 minutes at a height of 50 feet, an event commonly called the birth of commercial aviation (History of St. Pete). The first city library opened along Mirror Lake in December 1915 and still operates (History of St. Pete).

The Gandy Bridge opened in 1924 and cut travel time to Tampa by more than half (History of St. Pete). The Coliseum, which the city calls St. Pete's historic ballroom, dates from the same year: it was built in 1924 and bought by the City of St. Petersburg in 1989 (City of St. Petersburg, Coliseum). After the real estate crash, St. Petersburg City Hall was built with New Deal federal funds in 1939 and is still in use (History of St. Pete).

In the 1940s St. Pete became a major technical training center for the Army Air Corps, and more than 100,000 trainees filled every hotel in the city (History of St. Pete). The 1950s brought air conditioning, which spurred housing for retirees, and new shopping centers such as Central Plaza drew commerce away from downtown (History of St. Pete). The Digital Towns St. Petersburg green bench era guide covers that retiree period.

The African American Heritage Trail in South St. Pete and the Manhattan Casino on 22nd Street South are two places to see Black St. Petersburg history today.

John Donaldson and Anna Germain, the first Black settlers in what is now St. Petersburg, arrived in 1868 and built a homestead on what would become 18th Ave. South and 31st St. South (History of St. Pete). Railroad workers who came with the Orange Belt Railway in 1888 started Peppertown, near 3rd and 4th Avenues South just east of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. St., credited as the first predominantly Black neighborhood (History of St. Pete). Methodist Town followed, and Cooper's Quarters later became known as the Gas Plant neighborhood, named for two tall cylinders that held the city natural gas supply.

The Deuces reached its peak in the 1960s with more than 100 Black-owned or operated businesses, entertainment spots and professional offices (History of St. Pete). The city describes the Deuces as an area along 22nd St. S. and the Manhattan Casino as part of it; the Manhattan Casino was built in 1925 and first opened as the Jordan Dance Hall in 1931; performers there included James Brown, Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and Count Basie (City of St. Petersburg, Manhattan Casino).

The St. Petersburg African American Heritage Trail has nineteen markers that begin at the Carter G. Woodson Museum, 2240 9th Ave. S., and covers more than a dozen city blocks in two corridors; the 22nd Street trail is about 1.25 miles with ten stops (City of St. Petersburg, African American Heritage Trail). Guided walking or trolley tours are arranged through the African American Heritage Association, and city historic preservation staff answer at [email protected] (African American Heritage Trail). The Digital Towns St. Petersburg African American history guide follows this story from the 1868 settlement to the Gas Plant displacement.

Sunken Gardens began when George Turner Sr. bought 4.1 acres in 1911 and later drained a sinkhole called Curlew Pond, and it became a St. Petersburg local landmark in 1998 and a National Register listing in 1999.

Sunken Gardens says Turner, a plumber, gardener and real estate prospector, bought the 4.1 acres in 1911; the timeline places the draining of Curlew Pond, through a maze of clay tiles that left muck soil for gardening, in the early 1930s, when he was charging fifteen cents for tours (Sunken Gardens, History).

Preserving the St. Petersburg gardens became a community effort in the 1990s. Sunken Gardens was designated a protected Local Historic Landmark in 1998, its historic main entrance was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, and residents voted for a one-time tax increase that saved it; the City of St. Petersburg now works to preserve it (Sunken Gardens, History). The Sunken Gardens History Center opened in 2022 (Sunken Gardens, History). The Digital Towns St. Petersburg Sunken Gardens history guide covers the Turner family, the attraction years and the public purchase.

St. Petersburg protects historic places through its own local register, which limits demolition and alterations in a way National Register listing alone does not.

The St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places is a local designation program run by city staff, and local landmark designation gives properties a degree of protection from unnecessary demolition or unsympathetic alterations by private owners, unlike National Register listing (City of St. Petersburg, Historic Preservation). City historic preservation staff review proposed changes to locally designated properties through Certificates of Appropriateness (Historic Preservation). The Coliseum shows both layers: it is a local landmark and part of the Downtown St. Petersburg National Register District (Coliseum).

Waterfront history keeps changing too. The Inverted Pyramid pier, successor to the Million Dollar Pier, closed in 2013 and was replaced by the 26-acre St. Pete Pier, which opened in 2020 (History of St. Pete). On the Gas Plant land, Mayor Kenneth T. Welch announced in July 2026 the selection of the Pinellas County Housing Authority and The Burg Bid proposals, judged in part on honoring the promises made to the community when the land was first acquired; a final agreement still needs St. Petersburg City Council approval (City of St. Petersburg, Historic Gas Plant District).

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the City of St. Petersburg website.