Although St. Petersburg was founded on the edge of Tampa Bay, the city struggled for decades to make its waterfront location a useful one. After Peter Demens brought his railroad line to St. Petersburg in 1888, settlers followed to fish and to farm. But as a commercial port of call for freight and passenger ships, the city wasn't an immediate success -- its harbors were too shallow.

In 1901, the St. Petersburg city council announced a plan to dredge a shipping channel but it was not until April 1906 that the War Department (the predecessor of the Department of Defense) approved a permit for the dredging. The channel was completed in January 1908.

A year earlier a petition by the U.S. Board of Engineers to develop a commercial harbor had been rejected. Undeterred, in November 1908, Capt. Thornton began dredging a sand bar in an effort to deepen the channel leading to the city dock. The following month, the St. Petersburg city council established the dimensions and boundaries of a possible harbor.

By April 1910, the St. Petersburg Independent reported, a channel 12 feet deep and 150 feet wide had been dredged at Bayboro (a government chart published that November indicated that the water in the channel was 17 feet deep). In June 1910, the city council received a permit from the War Department for work to begin on the harbor. The next summer, however, the federal government rejected proposed improvements that would make Bayboro a deep-water harbor following an unfavorable report by a government engineer.

In June 1911, the city's congressional representative, Stephen Sparkman, told city officials that before he could recommend spending money for a deep-water harbor, the city would have to own all the lots facing the basin and build and maintain the docks. Even the city wasn't sure where the deep-water harbor should be. A week after Rep. Sparkman detailed his reservations, the city council considered a plan to place the harbor off the railroad dock where Demens Landing is now located. Two weeks later, the council accepted a committee report favoring Bayboro. In August, the council disappointed supporters of a deep-water harbor by voting to put off making a decision. In March 1913, the council approved the Bayboro site. Two months later, the U.S. Board of Engineers and the Secretary of War approved plans for a deep-water harbor at Bayboro.

In November 1913, the city council awarded the contract to dredge the harbor to A.C. Pheil. Work proceeded quickly. By August 1914, Phiel's dredge cut through Bayboro Point, opening a new channel to the harbor. The government dredge "Florida" completed the dredging in December. In March 1915, work on the Bayboro Municipal docks began. In May 1921, Salt Creek was opened to navigation by large boats.

By this time, the city had a connection to the nation's defense by virtue of the Army outpost at Ft. Desoto, built during the Spanish-American War. In 1919, that connection became stronger. That February 1919, Mayor Al Lang said that a landing place would be provided for airplanes at the waterfront along Third Avenue South if the commandant of the Army flying field at Arcadia permitted pilots to come here. On November 13, 1920, a Naval radio plant sent its first message from its new location at Bayboro Harbor.

In 1924, the Coast Guard base at Bayboro Harbor was built as an anti-bootlegging site. Abandoned in 1933, the base was reopened in 1939 to train seamen of the Merchant Marine. That year, the square-rigged sailing vessel "Joseph Conrad," built in 1882, and another vessel arrived at Bayboro Harbor. By the time the "Conrad" is decommissioned in 1944, the two ships have trained some 25,000 Merchant Marines.

As the waters of St. Petersburg became more important commercially and militarily, so did they recreationally. On Oct. 29, 1909, a "handful of sailors" formed the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. In the clubs first outing two months later, 20 boats carried about 100 members and guests to Blind Pass. St. Petersburg had a population then of about 1,600 people.

In 1927 "Florida Engineers and Consultant" magazine declared that "St. Petersburg now may well be called the yachtsmans paradise." Indeed. In 1930, the St. Petersburg Yacht Club sponsors a race from St. Petersburg to Havana, Cuba. The 284-mile course is divided into two classes: boats under 50 feet in length and those between 50 and 85 feet. Eleven boats participated.

In 1940, presidents of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club and the Miami Yacht Club create the Southern Ocean Racing Conference. They devise a series of races that cover a distance of nearly 600 miles with routes encompassing St. Petersburg, Miami, Havana, Key West, and Nassau.

Obviously, St. Petersburg was becoming a popular vacation stop for private sailing vessels. From 1926 to 1936, the "Leonie," a 100-foot yacht owned by copper magnate Murray Guggenheim wintered here. In 1937, the 90-foot yacht "Palladin," owned by A.B. Modine of Boston, Mass., arrived, having negotiated the new South Florida canal route.

As the areas population grew, so did its transportation needs. Again, the sea proved its importance. For many years, the Bee Line Ferry shuttled motorists across Tampa Bay between Pinellas and Manatee counties. Construction of the Sunshine Skyway bridge rendered the ferry obsolete.

In September 1965, Morgan Yacht Corporation of St. Petersburg delivered its first yacht. A mere five years later, the Morgan-built boat "Heritage," competed in the Americas Cup race.


Boats have a long history of importance to this city. While the railroad may have spawned St. Petersburg, a boat had a critical role in the citys development. In 1911, local business leaders learned of an impending vote in the legislature to split Pinellas County from Hillsborough. "Apparently through some skullduggery, and lack of good communication, the news of this impending vote did not reach St. Petersburg until very soon before the critical vote would be taken," E. Duval Farmer wrote many years later. A boat, the "Bayboro," owned by Farmers father, hurried them across the bay to Tampa to catch a train to Tallahassee where they successfully lobbied in favor of a local referendum that resulted in Pinellas becoming a separate county.

Research by USF St. Petersburg

Go to the Historic Postcards Archive

Go to the St. Petersburg Museum of History Web site.