12 In the summer of 1955, as a wide-eyed 15-year-old, I sat on one of the famous green benches that lined Central Avenue in downtown St. Petersburg. It was a typically steamy summer day, and as I sat in the shade of the McCrory’s building, resting, enjoying an RC Cola, I was soon joined by an elderly gentleman. His skin was burnished a dark bronze and weathered by the Florida sun. Soon we struck up a conversation, and I became spellbound as he related the history of St. Petersburg. The man’s father, an early Florida settler, had explained to him how the railroad was brought to Tampa by Henry B. Plant, who in 1883 was offered a subsidy of 13,840 acres of land for every mile of track he laid. There were many skeptics, but on January 23, 1884, Plant’s line to Tampa was completed, putting Tampa on the map. After the completion of his rail line, Plant did everything he could to hinder development of the Pinellas peninsula, but a young Philadelphian named Hamilton Disston had other ideas. In exchange for depositing one million dollars in the ailing state treasury, Disston obtained four million acres of land from the state in 1881, to become the largest landowner in the United States. Disston developed much of the land around the Tarpon Springs area, but in the summer of 1884, he looked south to the area around Boca Ciega Bay, and found what he considered the perfect place to build his “Capital” city. That year he filed a 25-square-mile city plat with streets and boulevards running along the waterfront. He named it Disston City. By 1885, there were three stores, a post office and a 26- room Waldorf Astoria Hotel. The United States Postal Service would not recognize the Disston City name, as it conflicted with another city in Hillsborough County. Eventually, the name was changed to Gulfport. Disston tried unsuccessfully to have Peter Demens, who was building a line southward from Sanford, Florida, extend his railway to Disston City, but they were unable to come to terms, and St. Petersburg would reap the benefit. By this time the old man’s voice was becoming hoarse, and he asked if I wouldn’t mind running into McCrory’s to get him one of those RC Colas. When I returned with his drink, he took a sip and continued his narrative. He told me he had been among a crowd of settlers and railroad workers The Green Bench History Lesson By Jack Spinrad On top: Sanford & St. Petersburg Railway Company engine number 7 circa 18--, Above: The famous green benches at St. Petersburg, Florida. circa 194-
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