Sunken Gardens History, From Turner's Pond to City Landmark

Sunken Gardens began when plumber George Turner Sr. bought land on what is now 4th Street North in St. Petersburg, in 1903 according to a city preservation report and in 1911 according to the city-run garden's own timeline.

The 1903 date comes from the City of St. Petersburg Cultural Landscape Report of August 8, 2011, excerpted in a January 12, 2021 staff report to the Community Planning and Preservation Commission, which says the area was pioneer country not long before George T. Turner's purchase of the land in 1903 (City of St. Petersburg, 2021). The Sunken Gardens history page, run by the city, opens its timeline with 1911, when Turner, a plumber, avid gardener and real estate prospector, bought the 4.1 acres (Sunken Gardens history).

None of the city or federal pages fetched for this guide reconciles these figures, so the table keeps each source's number. The same 2011 report says Turner built his family a house on the site around 1910, which fits either purchase year (City of St. Petersburg, 2021).

Turner drained a marshy pond on his St. Petersburg land, farmed the muck, and around 1930 turned the plot into a paid garden attraction that opened officially for the winter season of December 1936.

The 2011 Cultural Landscape Report describes the site as a large pond with a marshy fringe that neighbors' horses and cows kept getting stuck in; Turner installed a pipe system, drained it, and grew fruits, vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants on the mucky flats and sandy uplands (City of St. Petersburg, 2021). It says he hit on the idea of a garden attraction around 1930 as a way to survive the economic collapse of the early 1930s, and that he and his son Ralph spent much of the next six years building and planting it, with George Turner Jr. joining soon after.

The garden's own timeline tells the same years with different detail: in the early 1930s Turner drained the sinkhole known as Curlew Pond through a maze of clay tiles, and neighbors enjoyed walking through the sunken garden so much that tours cost fifteen cents by the early 1930s (Sunken Gardens history). It credits his wife, Eula Turner, with a large role in establishing the gardens as a landmark, and dates hard times to 1926, when Florida's land bust hit and tough economic times followed two hurricanes and record freezes.

The 1936 opening put Turner's Sunken Gardens early in a statewide trend. The city report says roadside attractions multiplied in Florida from the 1930s to the 1960s and calls Sunken Gardens one of the earliest, most successful and longest-lived examples (City of St. Petersburg, 2021).

From 1940 to 1989 the Turners added two entrance buildings, flamingos, an aviary and about two dozen animal pens at Sunken Gardens, hit record attendance in 1972, and then put the St. Petersburg property up for sale in 1989.

In 1940 the Turners built their first official entrance and gift shop, the building that now holds the History Center, and in the 1940s and 1950s the gardens were a social center for weddings, teas, beauty contests, garden clubs and fashion shows (Sunken Gardens history). The Turner sons took over after serving in World War II and brought the first flock of flamingos in 1955; a large walk-through aviary followed in 1965.

George Sr. retired in 1952, and a new, larger entrance and gift shop was built facing 4th Street, replacing the old Turner house (City of St. Petersburg, 2021). The National Register nomination names the architect of that 1952 entrance as William B. Harvard Sr., the St. Petersburg architect who also designed the Williams Park Band Shell and the St. Petersburg Municipal Pier (National Park Service). From 1967 the Turners' staff built faux stone enclosures by spraying a cement mixture over hand-formed steel and mesh frames, and by the mid 1970s the garden had about two dozen pens and aviaries.

The decline came with the highways. The city timeline says 1972 brought the highest attendance yet, just as Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, while new highways pulled traffic away from roadside attractions; the Turner grandsons took over management in 1979 and offered the gardens for sale in 1989 (Sunken Gardens history).

The large building at the front of Sunken Gardens on 4th Street North opened in June 1927 as the Sanitary Public Market, then served the American Legion and a Coca-Cola bottling plant before the gardens bought it in 1967.

The 2002 National Register nomination says architect Albert Lee Hawes designed the market in 1926 in the Mediterranean Revival style, which held about 38,000 square feet, counter space for 26 merchants and ten arcade stores on 4th Street North; the St. Petersburg Evening Independent called it one of the largest markets in the South (National Park Service). The market failed in the land bust and closed less than three years after opening. The St. Petersburg American Legion post bought it in 1931 as its armory, and the St. Petersburg Coca-Cola Bottling Company bought it in 1940.

Coca-Cola outgrew the building and sold it to neighboring Sunken Gardens in 1967. The Turners turned the old Main Market into the jungle-themed World's Largest Gift Shop with a new main entrance, used the former auditorium for the King of Kings Wax Museum, enclosed the loggia and plastered over most windows (National Park Service). Sunken Gardens occupied the building until 1995, then kept only the east portion for veterinary and horticulture uses. The city timeline dates the start of that transformation to 1966 and says the main entrance was established in 1926 (Sunken Gardens history), against 1967 and a June 1927 opening in the nomination.

The building is listed on the National Register as the Sanitary Public Market, record 02000680, at 1825 4th St. N, in the Mission/Spanish Revival style, with a publication date of 6/27/2002 (National Park Service NPGallery).

St. Petersburg designated Sunken Gardens a local historic landmark in 1998, voters approved a citizen-sponsored referendum and one-time tax in 1999, and the Turner family sold the garden to the city that year.

The National Register nomination says years of deferred maintenance had damaged the market building, falling attendance left little money for repairs, and the owners looked for a buyer; the building and complex were saved from demolition by local historic designation in 1998 and a referendum approved in 1999 (National Park Service). The city timeline adds that local citizens voted for a one-time tax increase to save the gardens (Sunken Gardens history).

Sunken Gardens is an individually listed landmark of the St. Petersburg Register of Historic Places, file 98-03, owned by the City of St. Petersburg (City of St. Petersburg, 2021). Since the 1999 sale it has run as a municipally owned botanical garden. The city report records that the city removed the cave and waterfall rockwork on the Main Building, demolished the 1952 entrance building and cleared some animal enclosures, shifting the site toward plants and education.

Preservation work is still moving. At its January 12, 2021 meeting the Community Planning and Preservation Commission reviewed a Certificate of Appropriateness to rehabilitate the 1940 entrance house, several faux rock structures and historic pathways, which the staff report calls among the most historic and character-defining resources left at Sunken Gardens (City of St. Petersburg, 2021).

The Sunken Gardens History Center, opened October 22, 2022 inside the restored 1940 entrance building, holds the photographs, home movies and oral histories of the Turner years.

The City of St. Petersburg says the History Center restoration, exhibits, plaza seating and orchid arbor were paid for by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, the city, Penny for Pinellas and the Sunken Gardens Forever Foundation, and that the 1940 building had held the garden's tropical birds at night before the work (City of St. Petersburg, 2022).

The surviving pieces of the Turner era to look for on the grounds are the 1940 entrance, the faux stone enclosures and the old paths, the three resources the 2021 staff report singled out (City of St. Petersburg, 2021). Hours, admission and parking are in the Digital Towns Visiting Sunken Gardens, St. Petersburg guide in the landmarks section.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the city-run Sunken Gardens history page, the 2022 History Center release, the 2021 St. Petersburg preservation staff report, and the National Park Service record and nomination for the Sanitary Public Market.