by Naomi Polonia
Since 1889, the St. Petersburg Pier has been a tourist mecca. There has been five “versions” of the pier in the past 125 years. They have served as fishing docks, meeting places, railroads, shopping centers, and places to share memories with someone you love or maybe even someone you just met.
Initially only accessible by railroad (or being a very careful walker), the first pier was called the Orange Belt Railway Pier. There wasn’t much to do at this time, most people just sat on the ledge to fish ad chat with others around them. This pier lasted until 1906, when it was replaced by the Electric Pier.
The Electric Pier was built directly because the popularity of the Orange Belt Railway. The Municipal Pier was built parallel to it in 1914. Ten years later, the Electric Pier’s remains were demolished. In 1921, the Tampa Bay Hurricane (alternatively called the 1921 Tarpon Springs Hurricane) destroyed both piers, and the city of St. Petersburg was given funds to rebuild the structure of the Municipal Pier.
With the million dollars the city was given, they built the Million Dollar Pier. (Fantastic naming, I know. It’s very original; I certainly wouldn’t have been able to come up with a better name.) It was just a ginormous casino that included a ballroom and observation deck. This, just like the other pier structures before it, was eventually demolished. After being smashed to smithereens in 1967, citizens weren’t okay with the destruction of the 41 year old building and for the five years that the space was empty, they urged the city to restore it.
(The postcard says Municipal Pier because it was built where the old pier stood. It’s still the Million Dollar Pier.)
In 1973, the pier we see today was opened. It was designed by William B. Harvard, who has designed and whose designs inspired other buildings in the Tampa Bay Area including the new Dali Museum and St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Under Construction
Under Construction
Finally opening in 1973
In 1987, the pier underwent some remodeling. 70,000 square feet of space was added for shops. The city said that the Pier was too far away from everything else to be profitable. After adding a few restaurants, the city was proved wrong. And boy, were they far off. Until it closed down, the Inverted Pyramid had attracted more than a million visitors per year, which made even more millions per year.
On June 1, 2013, the Pier we know today has been shut down because the road that leads up to the building isn’t safe for cars anymore. The city voted on a new design of the Pier called ‘The Lens’ by Michael Maltzan Architecture. The citizens voted that they didn’t want a new pier design, even though it would cost more to fix the structure than to start over and build a new one. The design itself was also unrealistic. Currently, only pedestrians are allowed to be near the Pier for exercising or fishing, but the building is still closed to the public.
Sources:
– http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/22446151/st-pete-pier-a-look-back
– http://savethepier.org/history.html
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1921_Tampa_Bay_hurricane
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Petersburg_Pier#History
– http://www.postcardroundup.com/municipal-pier (I didn’t get any actual information from here, just a photo. I got nearly all of the rest of the photos off of a site above that contained information as well.)
– http://www.stpete.org/TheLens/
– http://www.thenewstpetepier.com/
– http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/piers-through-the-years-in-st-petersburg/2123039
Pinellas County History Project 