Then and Now – 1934 & 2024 – 375 Brightwaters Blvd. (Snell Isle)
From 1934: “The Snell residence at Snell Isle is the most commanding location in St. Petersburg and unexcelled in the State. A waterfront Italian villa of 6 bedrooms and 6 baths with every requirement of the modern home and a wealth of built-in materials of age and art. Pictures, furnishings and statuary from Italy. Completely furnished. It is the best buy in the State at $65,000.”
C. Perry Snell, one of the best known pioneers of St. Pete, had this home built in 1928 for $125,000. It is based on homes he saw while traveling in Italy, in fact much of the material used was Italian and hundreds of years old (such as the tile). The house was built on nearly 2 acres, one lot 145 X 194 and a vacant lot of 180 X 210 – there was 400’ of frontage on Coffee Pot Bayou and Tampa Bay.
Perry Snell was born at Bowling Green Kentucky on June 5, 1869, the son of C.P. and Isabelle Snell. He completed his education at Ogden College in Bowling Green, where in 1923 he erected “Perry Snell Hall” where he placed a collection of several hundred pictures and statuary purchased by him abroad.
Perry was engaged in the retail drug business for 17 years of his early manhood, later coming to Pinellas County, where his long and successful career in the real estate business made him famous. Perry married Ms. Lillian Allen, of Columbia, TN. In January 1899, and the honeymooned in St. Pete.
Perry was so impressed with St. Pete and its possibilities that immediately bought a block downtown and later purchased the property that the Soreno Hotel would be built on. These investments were the first of a series, which have stamped him out as one of the greatest developers in Florida. Among Perry’s earliest projects were Bay Shore, Bay Front, North Shore, Granada Terrace, Lakeside, West Lake, and Crescent Lake. But his crowning achievement was Snell Isle. Another of his grand achievements was the Snell Arcade Building at the corner of 4th Street and Central. The project cost over $500,000 in 1927.
Perry Snell also served 10 years as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce waterfront committee and was touted by the Evening Independent as “the man who saved for the city our waterfront.”
Perry Snell died on October 23, 1942, at age 73. He and his wife were on vacation in Mexico City when he had a heart attack and died at Mercy Hospital in Laredo, Tx. The move to Laredo was prompted by a lack of medical facilities to care for him in Mexico. Perry is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Bowling Green, Ky.
However interesting C. Perry Snell is as the builder of this St. Pete mansion, he only lived there a short time. The next purchasers lived there for 65 years.
The house sold in 1939 to Wallace “Wally” Bond Bishop, cartoonist and his wife Louise (and her mother, Nellie Carson, whose late husband John was a general manager at the Coca-Cola bottling company).
Wallace Bond Bishop was born August 17, 1905, in Normal Illinois to Stanley and Mabel Bishop. His father, a newspaper man in Bloomington, Illinois, was the catalyst for Wally’s interest in cartooning. From boyhood on, Wally showed signs of talent, and spent a great deal of time in the newsroom. He worked one summer as a copy boy, and the newspaper ran some of his cartoons.
Wally graduated from Bloomington High School in 1924, and enrolled in the American Academy of Arts in Chicago. While at the academy his cartoons were catching the attention of the Chicago Tribune and they recommended him to King Features who hired him at age 19 to come work for them in New York. When arrived in New York in 1923, he experienced what he later said was “the worst case of homesickness ever known.”
Wally had become established in New York and was becoming a very successful cartoonist, and several of his cartoons were running regularly in the papers. It was during this period that Wally met Ms. Gertrude Steckel, seven years his senior, who was working for the Phoenix Mutual Insurance Co.
They were married on February 11, 1928, in New York City, and three months later (May 7, 1928) their daughter Mary was born. Gertrude never regained her strength and 17 days after the birth Gertrude died of pneumonia. Wally was now left with a newborn to raise. Luckily Gertrude’s mother was there to help. A month later (June 26, 1928), Wally was married again, this time to Ms. Mildred Georgia Thompson, who had a striking likeness to Gertrude.
That same year King Features transferred Wally to Cleveland to work for their Central Press Association. Unfortunately, he developed a throat infection and following an operation, was advised to try a warmer climate. St. Pete seemed a natural choice; Billy DeBeck, creator of “Barney Google”, lived St. Pete and Florida was attracting a number of syndicated cartoonists.
Wally and Mildred came here in 1928 and immediately found Florida living to their liking. Besides being an outstanding cartoonist, Wally, in his early days in St. Pete occasionally worked as a professional drummer, emceed numerous charity benefits, gave lectures and had rolls in little theater plays. In 1934, he won enduring fame in local yachting circles by sailing his 25 foot – Little Dipper – to second place in the St. Pete/Havana Yacht Race. It was the smallest vessel ever to enter the classic.
On January 30, 1933, Wally and Mildred had a son, Wallace Bond Bishop Jr. It would seem that life should have been idyllic for the couple but, it was not. Eight months after their son’s birth Mildred and Wally were divorced, Mildred had filed on charges of cruelty. — But, 3 months later, they were re-married at the county courthouse in Clearwater. This time the marriage lasted only 14 months, when the couple were again divorced under the same charges. Mildred received custody of Wally Jr. and Wally was again alone with his five year old daughter, Mary.
On September 18, 1936, Wally married Louise Carson of Evansville, Indiana. In 1939, Wally and Louise, along with her mother Nellie Carson, purchased the Snell house at 375 Brightwaters Blvd. Wally turned the tower of the house into his art studio where all his drawing was done, including his famous syndicated strip “Muggs and Skeeter”.
With Wally’s interest in sailing, it only seemed natural for him to join the U.S. Coast Guard at the outbreak of WWII. He was sworn in as a lieutenant at the St. Pete station and served as assistant operations officer until July 1943 when he attended the Coast Guard Training Command at St. Augustine, being elected company commander of his group, which included 80 officers of all ranks. From St. Augustine, Wally went on anti-submarine patrol in the North Atlantic as an executive officer aboard an escort vessel. After the war he separated as lieutenant commander.
Wally was extremely active in social and civic organizations in the city. He served on the American Red Cross, United Fund, Dragon Club, St. Pete Yacht Club, founding member and board member of the Museum of Fine Arts, Elks, National Cartoonist Society, and a fellow of the Royal Academy of the Arts, London, England.
Mildred, Wally’s second wife, died tragically on July 7, 1958, at age 50. She had moved to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and died in a traffic accident when she lost control of her car, and it plummeted over the mountainside.
Nellie Carson, Wally’s mother-in-law who lived with them, died on November 21, 1972, leaving Wally and Louise in the mansion by themselves.
Wally died on January 15, 1982, at age 76. He is buried at Royal Palm Cemetery in St. Pete.
Louise lived in the house until her passing on August 8, 2005, she was 98. Then after 65 years, the house was sold for 5.1 million to Michelle and David Rau.
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