This is SPP’s original walking tour. It follows a figure eight loop through downtown between Central Avenue and 4th Avenue North.
Learn about the beginnings of St. Petersburg in the 1880s, the boom of the early 1920s, and the Mediterranean influence on our architecture. You will get to see some of the boom era hotels (including the Princess Martha, Pennsylvania and the Dennis), some of our stately churches (including First United Methodist, St Peter’s Cathedral, and First Baptist), and some of our architectural gems including the Snell Arcade, the Open Air Post Office, and the Veillard residence.
Learn about and see photos of some of our lost treasures, including the Soreno Hotel, the LaPlaza and Florida movie theaters. The tour typically stops inside one or two historic buildings.
This is SPP’s newest tour. It has two distinct segments: the downtown waterfront and westward to the bungalows of the Kenwood neighborhood.
The tour begins with a brief history about early St. Petersburg and proceeds to the waterfront where, as one looks onto Al Lang Field, you’ll learn about the history of baseball in St Petersburg. The tour continues through the waterfront parks where you’ll hear how in the early 1900s William Straub championed a movement that led to the creation of the country’s largest public waterfront park system. Among other buildings, you’ll see and learn about the Pier, the Vinoy Park Hotel, and the Flori de Leon Apartments, where Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig lived during spring training.
The tour leaves the waterfront at 4th Avenue North and hops aboard the PSTA’s trolley, traveling down Central Avenue to the Craftsman Gallery – a wonderfully restored original model home for the Kenwood Neighborhood – where we’ll stop. You can stay at the Gallery and order lunch or continue the walking tour into Historic Kenwood, one of the country’s premiere bungalow neighborhoods. Typically one of the bungalows is open for our tour. The tour will return to the Craftsman Gallery where the trolley or other frequently scheduled buses are taken back return downtown.
This is St. Pete Preservation's newest tour! The tour leaves the Detroit Hotel, proceeds to the waterfront with special stops for you to learn about the creation of our nearly 100 year old waterfront park system, the City's first million dollar hotel, the million dollar pier and other stories about the promotion of St. Pete as a tourist town duirng the booming 1920's! The tour continues into the historic Old Northeast neighborhood with a special stop allowing an insider's peek at a fully restored home. The tour ends at the fabulous Vinoy Hotel where you can choose to stay for a drink on the verandah or to hop aboard the Looper trolley for a ride back downtown.