The St. Pete Wiki

Answer: John Levique

This legendary figure from the 1800s was returning from New Orleans when he found a hurricane had hit near his Boca Ciega homestead while he was gone and a new pass had been created. Colorful tales now surround this mysterious man, and some may even be true. But with 100% certainty the new pass the hurricane created was named for him. Read more about John Levique in this post!

Answer: Frank Pulver

St. Pete has had its fair share of colorful mayors, and some of them have pushed the envelope. Mayor Frank Fortune Pulver, a gregarious, white-suit wearing promoter of St. Pete may have been the most colorful, launching a nationwide ad campaign about his fight for “less restrictive” ladies’ swimwear. Read all about him in this post!

Answer:Great White Way

It will come as no surprise that in the early 1900s and even through the 1920s that electrical grids were not quite as extensive or resilient as they are today. While many buildings had power, streetlights were still a novelty. When towns started to create roads with streetlights they were often referred to as “White Ways” in reference to the lights at night. St. Pete for a time had the longest white way in the country, Central Avenue, stretching seven miles from downtown to Boca Ciega Bay.

Answer:Bahia del Espiritu Santo

The Spanish were the first non-native explorers of the west coast of Florida, and named many of the waterways and land masses that retain their names today including Boca Ciega, Pinellas (from Pt. del Pinelos), Manatee River, and more. Bahia de Espiritu Santo, or Bay of the Holy Spirit, was named by Hernando de Soto’s exploration expedition in 1539.

Answer: Coney Island

Treasure Island was a bit of a forgotten spit of land in the early days of St. Pete. The State of Florida sold the diminutive island in 1908 to Thomas Pierce for $1.25 an acre and he named it Coney Island. The first hotel, known as the Coney Island hotel was built in 1915. The island was later renamed Treasure Island after a very popular practical joke was played by notable St. Pete resident William McAdoo. What was the joke? Stay tuned to the articles to find out soon!

Answer: John Williams’ Hometown

The oldest hotel in St. Pete is still standing at the corner of Central and University Way (2nd Street). It was not built by Williams, but rather by Peter Demens as a hostelry to primarily serve employees of the Orange Belt. One story suggests Peter Demens won a coin flip and somewhat ironically got to name Williams’ town “St. Petersburg” after his hometown in Russia. Williams consolation was to name Demen’s hotel The Detroit, after his own hometown.

Answer: 1892

St. Pete was incorporated twice in its history. The first time was in 1892 when the population was 300 people, which was enough to charter a “town.” The second time was in 1903. The city grew quickly and had achieved a large enough population to reincorporate as a city. So the correct answer is 1892, but would have been 1903 if the question had read “city” instead of “town.”

Answer: Orange Belt Railway

The first railway to reach the town was the Orange Belt. John Williams owned much of the land that would become St. Pete, and needed transportation to move agricultural products and grow the city. He made a deal with Peter Demens, a Russian exile who had acquired a small railroad through a debt to his lumber business, to extend the railroad to the village from the Orlando area. It arrived in 1888.