The Wharf, St. Petersburg

Creator

Charles H. Stokes

Files

Preview

Creation Date

1-1-1893

Time Period

circa 1893-1895

Abstract

A view of buildings across a wooden pier.

Keywords

Wharves and piers

Extent

1 black-and-white photograph

Geographic Location

Pinellas County (Fla.); St. Petersburg (Fla.)

Physical Collection

Stokes Collection of Florida Plant Railway Photographs

Box

2

Digital Date

2025

Media Type

Black-and-white photographs

Note

The St. Petersburg railroad pier was built into Tampa Bay in 1889 so that ships could unload their goods directly onto the railroad. It was also the terminus of the original Orange Belt Railway owned by Peter Demens, a Russian immigrant. It is Demens' hometown that St. Petersburg is named after. Local legend says the co-founders, John C. Williams, and Demens flipped a coin to see if the town would be named after Williams' hometown of Detroit or Demens' of St. Petersburg, Russia. Williams supposedly lost the coin flip and so built a hotel near the pier and called it the "Detroit Hotel." The railroad pier had a fish house owned by Henry W. Hibbs that processed more than a thousand pounds of fish a day. The pier was torn down in 1952. The area is now Demens Landing Park at the St. Petersburg Municipal Marina.

Identifier

S54-081

Recommended Citation

Stokes, Charles H., "The Wharf, St. Petersburg" (1893). Stokes Collection of Florida Plant Railway Photographs. Image 96.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/stokes/96