The Place of Many Piers

By Lauren Thompson

The current St. Petersburg Pier (known locally as ‘The Pier’) is called the “Inverted Pyramid”, (which is being demolished and put under construction currently). It opened in 1973. It isn’t the first of its kind though. It’s actually the fifth! The first of the five was known as ‘The Orange Belt Railway Pier’, was built in 1889. The original structure, however, opened in 1895 when D.F. Brantley began operating the Pier Pavilion. In 1899, Peter Demens connected the Orange Belt Railroad to a half-mile dock (or strip). The Orange Belt was a railroad structure made for delivering goods to Tampa Bay. It was also a great spot for sightseeing and fun for locals and tourists.

The success of the Orange Belt resulted in the replacement of it in 1906 with the Electric Pier, which extended 3,000 feet into the bay. The Electric Pier was then replaced with the Municipal Pier in 1914. The Municipal Pier was wrecked by a hurricane in 1921.

I found an interesting story when reading about the Municipal Pier. On June 17, 1922, an 18-year old, Dorothy MacLatchie, was killed by a “monster fish” while she was floating with a friend next to the Municipal Pier. While some reports say her death was caused by a shark, newspaper accounts state that her death was caused by a barracuda. Her friend dragged Dorothy’s body more than half a mile before the cries for help were heard. (postcard from municipal)

After the storm, the city of St. Petersburg gave a 1 million dollar bond for a new structure because the damage was so bad. This came to take part in the ‘Million Dollar Pier’ (as pictured below).

(Postcard from the Million Dollar Pier)

The Million Dollar Pier was a Mediterranean-style casino, built in 1926. It included an observation deck, an open-air ballroom, and a spacious hall for card games and community events. A part of the building’s entrance was later made as WSUN-TV’s studios, where “Captain Mac” broadcast his children’s show in the 1950s. By 1967 the Million Dollar Pier was demolished. The site was vacant for several years until the Inverted Pyramid was built in 1973.

The Inverted Pyramid was designed by William B. Harvard Sr., a local architect. The site has five stories of shops, restaurants and it has an aquarium. The pier generated $12.5 million in sales in the year 2000. In August of 2010, the City Council voted on demolishing the Inverted Pyramid and the St. Pete Pier. They would’ve needed to rebuild it at one point before 2014 because the structure itself was deteriorating. It was deteriorating because the base of the Inverted Pyramid was constructed when we had the Million Dollar Pier, which was built way back in 1926. By 2014, it would have been almost 90 years since the base was built.

The City Council set up a competition to choose a design for the new pier in 2011. In January of 2012, Michael Maltzan won the competition with his architecture called ‘The Lens’. The design was very unrealistic and would probably take a century to build. In September later that year, Stop the Lens Facebook Page was established by, (also with StopTheLens.com), citizens of St. Petersburg. In April of 2013, the group collected over 16,000 signed & witnessed petitions, which forced the City to cancel the contract with Michael Maltzan’s architectural firm. Even though the required number of Stop the Lens petitions for the August 27th referendum had been reached and reviewed, Mayor Bill Foster closed the St. Pete Pier. May 31, 2013 was the last day the site was open.

Lately, they have been trying to figure out a compromise and how the design should look like. It is still undecided on what the design for the new pier will look like and for now the pier is closed off.