Coffee Pot Park – Location Found!

How it Started

Way back in 1914, future mayor and baseball aficionado Al Lang was instrumental in bringing the first major league team to St. Pete for Spring Training. In bringing a team, a baseball field had to be constructed, along with stands and everything you would expect. Perry Snell and his partner J. C. Hamlett offered up a plot of land on Coffee Pot Bayou, a piece of what would become the popular North Shore development. After some political back and forth and consideration of another site, the Coffee Pot location was chosen as the spot for the ballpark. Snell and Hamlett agreed to very generous terms, allowing free use of the location for six years. The official name for the park was “Sunshine Park” but everyone referred to it as Coffee Pot Park due to the location.

The Park Gets Lost to Development

As the city grew, and because Snell and Hamlett eventually wanted their land back, Waterfront Park was built downtown in 1921. The clay that had comprised the Coffee Pot diamond was relocated to the under-construction downtown YMCA to be used for the basketball court. The rest of the park was dismantled and changes would soon put houses over the location of the park.

Oddly, there were never any exact directions to Coffee Pot Park. While photos exist of the park, and the general location has been known, much speculation remains on where the location actually was. This seems absolutely nuts – but the location of the park was always described simply as “at Coffee Pot Bayou.” Since there was nothing else around, no specific directions were ever listed in advertisements, newspapers, or anywhere else. Everyone just sort of knew where to go or followed someone who did. Slowly then suddenly, the park was forgotten. It’s location faded into obscurity.

Research Incoming

I enjoy looking into historical mysteries like this one, and have been studying the description and location hints I could find for the park for a couple years now. But my aha moment finally came a few weeks back via two pictures that wouldn’t seem to be connected, but they were. I was then able to re-review aerial photos, plat maps, descriptions and advertisements to finally locate the park. So here is my research.

First Things First

Noted above, the park land was donated by Snell and Hamlett, but this wasn’t the only lot in consideration for the field. Another plot, located in South St. Pete was also under consideration. So the physical location and details of the park’s design was very well documented in the newspapers. Which plot was closer to downtown? Which was larger? What were the terms offered for each location? These questions were documented very well in newspaper articles. But what wasn’t noted was the exact location. But let’s look at some hints I’ve collected.

So what we know from the hints above was that the park was a bit of a walk from the end of the trolley line, however a road did approach the property. The streetcar, however, didn’t quite come to the field. And we also know that there was deep enough water for boats carrying fans to approach the park.

OK so, now a little break with a potential confirmed site. On Feb 11, 1963 the Evening Independent published an article by Jimmy Mann that quoted St. Pete Sports writer Jeff Moshier as saying his house, located at 2232 Brevard Road, was built in the “home base area” of the park:

The same article had a few other speculative guesses as well. But this was intriguing; he seems like a trustworthy source, but I am a bit of a GenX skeptic. What sports writer wouldn’t was to say his property was on the first baseball field in St. Pete? So I kept digging. But we are definitely, um, “in the ballpark”.

Early North Shore Plan

Newspaper advertisements for subdivisions were surprising detailed in the early days. Let’s take a look at this initial plan for the North Shore subdivision – because it was designed differently than it was eventually laid out a few years later.

This is a very important piece of the puzzle. Originally, the lots were all laid out in a standard grid. However, later, as the North Shore became developed, the roads and lot lines were changed. The Granada Terrace area included a park and curved roads. 23rd Avenue, shown above as straight to the bayou was instead tilted to create a park / mall. So what know from this plat is that there was a originally platted double lot at Bay Street between what was to become 23rd and 24th Avenue. I have highlighted that above.

The amount of land that was offered by Snell and Hamlett was described in the newspapers accounts of the decision on where to locate the park as “two blocks of land.” The lot I have marked above is the only plot that has two blocks of land located on the bayou until you go north a few more blocks to around 27th Avenue. But those lots were much shorter, more like a block and a half, not ideal for the length needed to put in a field.

Modern Map, Original Lines

Lets look at an aerial of Moshier’s claim of the park / home plate area being located at roughly 2232 Brevard Road, where he owned the house. The map pin below is the address. I have added the red lines, that would have been the original plat lines for Bay Street, 24th Ave N, and 23rd Ave N.

From the series of small clips I first posted above, we know that the grandstand was located on the Southwest corner of the lot. So let’s add that:

We can see that Moshier’s claim is very close to the location where home plate might have been. And to be fair, he said his home was “in the area of,” not right over home plate. So now we can be fairly certain we have some really good circumstantial evidence. But I’m not done. As they say in baseball, let’s make it a slam dunk!

The Two Photos

So I was vexed for a long time with the photo below, which purports to show the park. This 1915 photo was found in a Philadelphia newspaper. And it totally makes sense, you can see water, description matches, etc. But what vexed me was the spit of land to the right. There is nothing that looks like that in Coffee Pot Bayou. At least not today.

Breakthrough!

But then the smoking gun. Still undeveloped, an aerial photo I found from 1920 shows Coffee Pot Bayou still largely in its original state, before the dredging and contour changes. Take a look:

There were two spits of land you see in the middle of the bayou that were later shortened to suit the development. They do not exist today. One of those, circled below, is the spit of land in the newspaper photo. And it must be that one, otherwise you would see both of the spits of land in the photo as they were close together. Along with this, there was some rough shore in both photos. Keep in mind, these pictures were from about 5 years apart, but not much had changed in that time.

Let’s Keep Going

Another important clue is the angle of the fence. notice it is closer to the diamond in center field than it is in right field. The fence followed the shore line. So let’s add that to our map, and see if the angle of the shore is correct. And let’s pop in a field as well, plus the blue line showing the angle of the photo and the yellow showing the fence. And it’s right here: Everything aligns perfectly.

Lastly, the Trolley Line

One of the other clues was that trolley line didn’t go directly to the park, but came close. In the snippets way back up at the top, people grumbled slightly about the walk from the trolley terminus, but it was dismissed as a minor concern. Let’s see where that was. I dug up the map from 1919.

The ball park stop was just west of Locust Street at 21st Ave N. Let’s see where that puts our spectators that took the trolley.

The bottom blue circle is the vicinity of the trolley stop as noted in the map, and the park location was where the top blue circle is located. But keep in mind, not all of these roads existed yet. The yellow line is the most likely path that people would have walked to enter the park near the grandstand. It would have been a walk of 5 or 6 blocks, which is just far enough for people to complain at little bit.

In Conclusion

So with all of the clues in text, from road locations to people’s comments, all the photos, triangulation, and every clue matching I firmly believe that this is the only place the park could have existed. With copious research, analysis of photos and descriptions, as well as hints from people who covered sports or who remembered the park, this is the only location that fits every parameter.

This research was a lot of fun but took off and on sleuthing over a year or so. If you enjoyed this read, please feel free to repost using the social buttons below. It keeps us writing!