Old Tampa Bay, one story at a time
We work these towns every day, so we got a little obsessed with their history — the green benches, the sponge divers, the winter palaces. Turns out almost all of it comes back to the same thing we do: beating the Florida heat. We add a new one regularly. Grab a coffee.
The city that ran on green benches
For half a century, downtown St. Pete had thousands of green benches on the sidewalks. There's a reason they disappeared — and it's the reason we have a business.
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The biggest wooden building on earth was in Belleair
A railroad tycoon built a 820,000-square-foot pine hotel on the bluff at Belleair — for guests who came in winter and were gone before the Florida summer could get them.
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How Florida survived summer before AC
Keeping a house livable used to be a daily chore, not a setting on the wall. Screened porches, the iceman, and a whole lot of standing in the shade.
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The Greek sponge divers who built a town
Tarpon Springs became the sponge capital of the world — and the most Greek town in America — on the backs of divers in brass helmets walking the Gulf floor.
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