The vintage 1886 Mary and Zephaniah Phillips cottage, the oldest homestead on Central Florida’s
West Coast beaches, is at 608 Pass-a-Grille Way in the Pass-a-Grille Historic District of St. Pete Beach.
the area between Pass-a-Grille, Gulf and
Sunset Ways and 1st and 32nd avenues
to include an additional 354 vintage
structures, thus ensuring the protection
of both the original and current sites, plus
the Phillips family’s actual cottage.
Despite the historic designation, the
cottage was in danger of demolition
when a couple who purchased it in 1999
argued 13 years later that the ravages of
time and a recent tropical storm were
irreversible. Fortunately for the cottage,
the Pass-a-Grille’s historic preservation
board prevailed to save it, and a local
restaurateur stepped in to purchase and
renovate it.
While you are exploring the beaches and
discovering vintage cottages and the many
other things there are to discover, you may
want to visit the Gulf Beaches Historical
Museum. It is in the former Pass-a-Grille
Community Church, where you will find a
plethora of local artifacts and memorabilia.
The museum is at 115 10th Ave. in
St. Pete Beach within the Pass-a-Grille
Historic District, and may be contacted at
(727) 552-1610.9
site identified as a former Spanish fishing
camp that had become known as Rancho de
Juaquin about 100 years before the Phillips
homesteaders arrived. The cottage was
moved a short distance to its new location
at 608 Pass-a-Grille Way in 1918 by a new
owner. You can see it there today, complete
with several additions that were added to
it over the years.
In 1957, Pass-a-Grille reluctantly merged
with St. Petersburg Beach along with the
other small towns of Don CeSar Place,
Belle Vista Beach, plus Long Key’s nearby
unincorporated beach communities to
create a town known collectively as St.
Petersburg Beach, which in 1994 was
officially renamed St. Pete Beach.
Pass-a-Grille has retained its original
character, partly because its residents and
leaders have avoided the temptations
of extensive new development. The
community was protected still more when
the Pass-a-Grille Historic District, or “Old
Town Pass-a-Grille,” containing 97 historic
buildings, officially became a United States
historic district in October of 1989. This
area between Gulf Boulevard and 12th,
4th and Gulf avenues was expanded even
further in September of 2003 to include
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He and his two sons transported lumber to
Long Key from the mainland via a boat they
constructed in order to build their family’s
home. They resided in the little house until
around 1891, when Mary, who had tired
of the insects and wild creatures that came
with their rural lifestyle, suggested they
relocate to St. Petersburg, where they lived
for the remainder of their lives.
Mary and Zephaniah Phillips led the
way for additional homesteaders and
families, who built cottages and eventually
businesses of their own. By the 1900s, the
little beach town of Pass-a-Grille was
connected by ferry service to Gulfport
on the mainland, and even had a hotel.
Tourists and locals were able to travel
by railroad to board the ferry in order to
play and/or stay in what was the first
resort town on the Tampa Bay area’s
beaches. A large, waterfront casino was
built and exotic Australian pine trees were
introduced in the quickly expanding town
during the 1920s.
The Phillips’ cottage was originally
located on the leeward side of the southern
tip of the barrier islands at what is now
612 Pass-a-Grille Way on the corner of
Seventh Avenue. It was situated on the
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