Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
This park is named after S.S. Coachman, an early settler and store owner. He came from Georgia in 1886, after living for a time in Lakeland and Webster. He owned a sawmill near the present Belleview Mido Hotel. Coachman was a leader in the fight to separate Pinellas from Hillsborough County, and became one of the first members of the County Commission after the split.
Carl Stig's Grey Gull Inn was located here in 1928. Prior to that, it was known as the Sea Ora Lodge.
Later, this was the site of Schrafft's Hotel and Restaurant, which became the Sandcastle Inn. It was acquired and remodeled by the Church of Scientology.
A rambling wooden inn was located here until it was torn down and rebuilt of brick.
A wooden bridge built in 1916, two miles long, connected the mainland to Tate Island. It was known as the "rickety-bridge" because the planks, warped by the sun, required the cars to "clippity-clop" over them at a slow pace. In the fall of 1921, a hurricane swept away 60% of the bridge. In 1924, the name of Tate Island was officially changed to Clearwater Beach.
This school, named for the pioneer Ward family, opened in 1915. The Wards came to this area in 1885 and built a one-room schoolhouse so their daughters could attend school.
This home was built in about 1885, and originally had a "widow's walk" around a tower which was later blown off in a storm. The home was remodeled leaving only the central gable. J.R. Brumby, Sr. and his family came from Marietta, Georgia. They built furniture, including the "Brumby rocker" that sat on the White House veranda.
Rev. Randolph Feagins organized this church in 1921. The present sanctuary was constructed 50 years later.
The Dorothy Thompson African American Museum opened in 1978, housing a private collection of African-American books, records, tapes, cookbooks, and artifacts from the 75 pioneer African families who settled in Clearwater. Included is an exhibit about Annie Sypes, a black woman who was born here and lived here most of her 107 years. The museum is open by appointment.
This school began as the Pinellas Institute, the first school for blacks. It was later called the Pinellas Colored Junior High School, then Pinellas High School. When in 1968 it became the Clearwater Comprehensive Junior High School, it was completely integrated. It is now known as the Clearwater Discovery School.
This church was organized in 1913 by Pastor Moses Richard. This sanctuary was constructed in 1960-66.
This Mediterranean Revival style post office was designed by Theodore H. Skinner as a W.P.A. project. It was built by Walt and Sinclair of Florida, Inc. in 1932 and dedicated in 1933. The facade of the two-story masonry building is faced with Florida limestone ("keystone", quarried in the Florida Keys), and has a barrel tile roof. This building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 7, 1980.
The first Clearwater depot was built in 1888, with Russian architecture and served the Orange Belt Railroad.
The Tampa & Gulf Coast Railroad reached Clearwater in 1914. A station was built here in the early 1920s to house the operations of the Seaboard Air Line, which merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line. The depot was torn down in 2004.
This was the site of the Midway Baptist Church during the 1870s, in whose building was held the first school with Jennie Reynolds Plumb as the first teacher beginning in 1873. The land was owned by A.K. Meigs, and later by Ms. Plumb.
A home was built here during the 1890s for railroad tycoon Henry B. Plant for use as a worker's cottage during the construction of the Belleview-Biltmore Hotel near where it was located. Beginning in 1896, it was occupied by Louis Ducros, Plant's (and the hotel's) official photographer. Later, it was owned by Rocco Grella, a member of the original John Phillip Sousa Band. The Carpenter Gothic style house remained unpainted until 1940.
In December of 1976, the Strawberry Walrus Shop opened in the house. On July 2, 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The house was moved to another location in 2005 to provide room for the expansion of adjacent businesses.
The first golf course in this area was developed by Henry Plant in conjunction with his hotel. In 1898, there were six holes with greens covered with shells. It was expanded in 1899 to nine holes with sand greens, designed by Launcelot Cressy Servos. It grew to 18 holes by 1909 with greens covered with grass. Later, it was expanded again to 54 holes.
The present 18-hole course was designed in 1925 by Donald Ross. It has been known as the South Course, the Pelican Country Club, the Belleview Mido Country Club, the Belleview Biltmore Golf Club and the Belleaire Country Club.
This area was homesteaded in 1875 by Capt. Charles Wharton Johnson, who was shipwrecked near here in about 1871. Several homes and support buildings were constructed in anticipation of the hotel. This Queen Anne Victorian house was built in 1895, and is the oldest one still standing.
As a result of the efforts of Henry B. Plant, the hotel was built in 1895-96, and opened with 145 rooms on January 15, 1897. This formed the social center around which Clearwater developed. Its style is Eclectic with Shingle-style elements, and was designed by Michael J. Miller and Francis J. Kinnard.
The hotel had its own railroad spur and private car tracks. The ties supporting the tracks were covered by hotel employees with dirt so they would not offend the eyes of hotel guests.
The hotel was sold to the Biltmore Corp. in 1919. During 1943 and 1944, the 365 available rooms were taken over by the Air Force as barracks.
This Victorian style hotel has 400 rooms for guests and 200 for staff, over two miles of corridors, and one exterior coat of paint requires 1000 gallons. The four and a half story frame building with broad verandas is the largest wood frame building in Florida, and is said to be the largest occupied wooden structure in the world. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 26, 1979.
In 1990, it was renamed the Belleview Mido when it was acquired by MIDO Development, Inc., a company based in Osaka, Japan.
This hospital was built in 1914-15 with 21 beds as the first hospital in Clearwater. Morton Plant donated $100,000 toward its maintenance, provided the local residents would raise $20,000 for the cost of its construction. It was built of tan brick, and had porches up and down, with stairs on three sides. In 1975, the Barnard Memorial Building opened, increasing its capacity to 750 beds.
Mary S. Boardman in 1920 chose this site on the bluff overlooking Clearwater Bay for a restaurant. The Boyd homestead previously located here was converted into a New England style tea room. The business was taken over by her daughter, Mrs. Frank Siple, in 1955. The building still stands on the bluff, and has become a part of the hospital complex.
This home was built in 1925. The Harbor Oaks Subdivision in which it sits was developed starting in 1912-14 by Dean Alvord, who had previously built and renovated homes in New York. He was joined in the venture by his son, Donald. This land was included within the Clearwater city limits when it incorporated in 1891.
This residence of W.T. Harrison was built in 1925. The terraces were added later by Charles T. Plunkett and Donald Alvord. The home was built with a Mediterranean Revival style along the bluff which slopes down toward the bay. The view of the water helped Harbor Oaks get the nickname of "The Riviera of the Sunny South."
This Mediterranean style home was built in 1925 by Dean Alvord. The Harbor Oaks Subdivision, a National Register Historic District, was designed and built with sewers, roads, landscaping, street lights and other amenities, which was advanced for land development of its period.
Alvord had intended only to buy enough land on which he could build a winter home for himself, but E.H. Coachman refused to sell him a single parcel. Since Alvord had to then by the entire former grove, he decided to develop it as a subdivision. His plan was to attract wealthy winter residents and protect their property values by including sewers, roads, water and landscapting.
A later owner of this home was Robert S. Brown, who added extensive wings on the north and south ends of the main house. He also changed the window configuration and remodeled the interior. He added a large bell tower, elaborate gardens on the bay side, and an extensive organ system inside.
A New York City antique dealer had this home built in 1925 to resemble a French country home.
Cleveland developer Winthrop Ingersoll had this Colonial Revival home built in 1923.
This 1920 home was designed by Dean Alvord for Charles Spence with a Chateauesque style.
This Colonial Revival style home built in 1918 was the residence of William Harrison, the developer of radon for medical therapy.
This home was built in 1925 for James Studebaker III, a banker and member of the automobile manufacturing family.
This home was built in 1925 and was given by Robert S. Brown as a wedding gift to his daughter, Mary Savage.
This was built in 1925 with a plan drawn up by Franklin O. Adams of Tampa. It was the home of Edna Brown, and along with the Savage house was used in a national ad campaign during the Boom period.
This house was built in 1926 and owned by A.R. Crews, and was rented during the winters to novelist Rex Beach.
This house was built in 1923 for W.F. Rehbaum, the founder of West Coast Hardware.
This home was built in 1926 with a Mediterranean Revival style, including an arcaded loggia porch.
This English cottage style home was built in 1926 for W.D. Landers. It stands out in a block of Mission style buildings.
Built in 1922, this was the home of Rev. D.A. Dunsieth, the minister of the Peace Memorial Presbyterian Church.
This home built in 1913 was the residence of Tavor Bayly, later the president of the First National Bank.
This Mission style home was built in 1927 for Harold Judd, a New York City silver manufacturer.
This two-story Colonial Revival style house was built in 1915. It it lived Sewell Ford, the writer who created the "Shorty McCabe tales". He was the first nationally-known figure who established a winter home in Harbor Oaks.
This house was built in 1914 and was owned by Robert S. Brown. During the early 1920s, he patented a paint that was used on every Ford produced during that time. He named the estate Century Oaks because of the large, old live oaks on the property. The property was later bought by Nigel Mansell, a famous formula one race car driver.
Fumio Hawakawa in 1938 transformed much of the property into the Japanese Eaglenest Gardens, designing and planting 65 acres. Because of anti-Japanese sentiment, the name was changed in 1945 to Eaglenest Gardens. It was a beautiful and restful spot where residents and tourists could dine or enjoy afternoon tea. The land was later subdivided and sold for homesites.
In April of 1841, the army built Florida's first health resort high on a bluff here and named it after President William Henry Harrison. It was a convalescent post for soldiers wounded in the Seminole War. It consisted of a large log barracks housing 340 officers and enlisted men of the 6th U.S. Infantry. After seven months, it was abandoned.
The fort property and a large portion of present-day downtown Clearwater was homesteaded in 1843 by James Stevens, known as the "Father of Clearwater". He was not happy with the land and sold it to John S. Taylor for one black slave, who was later accused of trying to poison the Stevens family. Most of what is now downtown Clearwater was traded for one unwanted slave.
Known as Spotswood (or Spottis Woode), this estate features a two and a half story main Tudor Revival house built in 1929. It was designed by Roy W. Wakeling, and was built of red brick with bay windows on the entrance and garden facade. A.D. Taylor was the landscape architect and John Phillipoff was the builder. The semi-octagonal elevator tower was added in 1939.
This was the home of inventor Donald Roebling. Included in his list of inventions was the Alligator, an amphibious vehicle that was the prototype of one used during World War II.
The grounds of the estate have been subdivided for more homes. The estate was placed on the National Register of historic Places on December 19, 1979.
This house built in 1924 was the winter home of Charles H. Ebbetts, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. It has an Italianate style with cutout arches on the second floor. For detailed work, Ebbetts flew in craftsmen from New York and New Jersey. In one bathroom is a built-in platform scale patented in 1904. When you stand on the part attached to the floor, your weight is accurately shown on a display built into the wall in front of you.
This Prairie style house was built in 1921. It was the home of William F. Rehbaum, an organizer of the First National Bank of Clearwater. Another owner of the house was M.A. McMullen, a circuit judge and member of one of the pioneer citrus families.
This home of L.B. Dirkerson was built in 1925.
This Prairie style home was built in 1922 for John Homerque.
R.F. Randolf's house was built in 1918 with a Dutch Colonial style.
Tavor Bayly built this Prairie style home in 1918 for Dr. J.F. Bowen.
This Colonial Revival style home was designed by Walter Gause and built in 1937. It was the residence of Maude Dunsieth.
This 1922 Mission style house was the residence of Melvin A. and Nell McMullen.
This Dutch Colonial home was built in 1926 for N.B. Beecher.
This Mediterranean Revival style home was built in 1923 for Frank Booth. It was later the home of attorney Chester B. McMullen, Jr.
This may be Clearwater's oldest tree, a live oak estimated at two hundred years. It is in front of a Spanish style home nicknamed "The Tree House".
The first sanctuary for the congregation was built at the northwest corner of S. Fort Harrison Ave. and Haven St. in 1883. It was relocated in 1925 to this site, where there is one of only three carillons in the state and 180 in the United States. The stained glass windows were created in Willet Studio in 1944-46.
The first public elementary school and high school in Pinellas County were located here, built in 1883. It was enlarged in 1888 and was expanded in 1902 when it became a grade school.
The oldest of the remaining three buildings in the complex was built in 1906, a two-story rusticated concrete block building with an Eclectic style. This was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 18, 1979. It is the oldest continually operating school in Pinellas County.
This congregation organized in about 1850, about four miles from downtown on the road to Tampa, but abandoned its building during the Civil War. It later reactivated and moved into town.
In 1884, a sanctuary was built at this corner and was used until a storm blew it down in 1917. The present sanctuary was built in 1921.
This was originally the Masonic Temple, built in 1927. It later became the home of Lawyer's Title.
The Episcopal Church of the Ascension was built on this site in 1883. It began as a small frame building, and was twice enlarged and then moved. The church property was sold and the congregation moved elsewhere.
World War I delayed the construction of the second courthouse, completed here in 1926. The 1917 Neo-Classical building at 324 S. Fort Harrison Ave. was outgrown by 1960, and was replaced by an adjoining modern annex and jail on the west. Inside is a museum operated by the Pinellas County Historical Commission.
The four-story Verona Inn built here in 1898 was one of early Clearwater's elegant hotels, with C.W. Joseph as its proprietor. By 1926, it was acquired by George Washburn and was renamed as the Grey Moss Inn. In 1933, it was acquired by John Welch. A fourth floor was added and it was expanded to 100 rooms.
This hotel built by Ed Haley opened in 1926 as Clearwater's first "skyscraper", was for years owned by the Jack Tarr Hotel Corporation. It was later occupied by the Church of Scientology.
Before this church, this was the site of the first hotel in Clearwater. During the early 1880s, M.C. Dwight built the Orange View Hotel here with several cottages. The resort burned a few years later.
The Presbyterian Church of Clearwater was organized in 1891 by Rev. Luther H. Wilson. John R. Davey and his business partners donated a lot, and the sanctuary was built in 1895. It was known as the "little white church".
In 1912, on this site was built with volunteer labor a two-story frame county courthouse on lots provided by the city. Those volunteers built the courthouse overnight by torchlight to complete the building before it could be stopped by a St. Petersburg judge who tried to have his city designated as the county seat. When the injunction papers were brought here to be served on the workers, they took boats out into international waters to avoid receiving the papers. That courthouse was used for almost seven years.
The present church building was dedicated in 1923 by William Jennings Bryan as a tribute to the ideals of peace, and as a memorial to the veterans of World War I. It is now referred to as the "big pink church". Three of the stained glass windows were created by the Tiffany Studio in 1891. A majority of the 132 others were designed by Mrs. Marion P. Davey.
A large, one-story business arcade building stood here for many years. Included on the list of its tenants were the Ray Green Drug Store, Rellops Dress Shop, Postal Telegraph, Dutch Kitchen, St. Petersburg Times, Children's Shoppe, Hardin and Shaw Barber Shop, and Frank J. Booth Real Estate.
Clearwater had telephone service beginning in 1900. Later, Peninsular Telephone Company, the predecessor to General Telephone Company, had its office here. In the 1940s, the toll board and switchboard were on the second floor and the commercial office was downstairs in the rear of the building. In the front, facing Cleveland St., was the Rexall Drug Store.
The F.W. Woolworth Co. store was located here in the 1950s in a two-story building.
In the 1950s, the McCrory's store was located here in a two-story building.
In 1952, Jack M. Eckerd acquired the White Way Drug Store located here and two in Tampa and began his drug store empire. He had become involved in his family's drug store business in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1932, working in the basement stockroom. His three stores have grown to over 300, and his initial 19 employees have increased to about 8,000.
In 1910, this was the location of the two-story Clearwater Department Store. Later, it was the site of the Jeffords & Smoyer Grocery Store.
In 1918, the Bank of Clearwater, which had been organized in 1906 with D.F. Conely as its first president, moved into its new home here. It features Greek Revival columns and has undergone extensive renovation over the years.
S.S. Coachman built the largest general store in town, which he ran for 20 years. In 1894, he built one of the first brick buildings in the county on this corner, in which he operated the S.S. Coachman & Sons grocery store. This five-story building was completed in 1917, and bears a resemblance to other Spanish brick structures in Tampa. Clearwater's first telephone line in 1900 linked this store with John R. Davy, Sr.'s orange groves near Safety Harbor.
Beginning in 1911, this was the site of the fire station and city hall. The first fire chief was Joe Anspaugh.
This hotel was built in about 1930, and claimed to have the lowest rates in the city. The Philadelphia Phillies stayed here in the 1950s during spring training.
Until the fire of 1910, this was the site of the N.N. Friend Dry Goods & Grocery Store, built in the 1880s. Later, Peoples Bank was built here, and later became the First National Bank. The corner was later occupied by the Wolfe Brothers clothing store.
It also housed the St. Petersburg Independent, a newspaper published by Willis B. Powell beginning in 1907.
Built in 1920, this was the home of Guaranty Title and Trust Company. During the 1930s, it was the original home of the Gulf Coast Art Center, and was known as the Clearwater Art Museum. Later, it was acquired by the City of Clearwater and used as the office of the Chamber of Commerce from 1935 to 1964.
In 1885, the section of Cleveland St. from the harbor to the railroad station, and Fort Harrison Ave. south to near the Methodist Church, were the only paved streets in Clearwater. They were covered with shell taken from an Indian mound located near the harbor.
J.N. McClung built the first ice factory in 1900, and installed a water main from it to this intersection. The city bought it from him in 1910.
The wooden business buildings on this side of the block were destroyed by a fire on June 24, 1910.
During World War II, this was the site of The Spa, a snack shop that served sandwiches, light lunches, and ice cream.
This was the location of a popular movie theater built in 1924 with an ornate Spanish style facade. It was removed during the 1950s to provide for a more modern, flat angular appearance. It was later renamed the Royalty Theatre.
A building erected here in 1911 was originally called the Bayview Hotel, and was renamed as the Detroit Hotel.
This red brick structure was built in about 1911. The Clearwater Sun newspaper began publication here in 1914, with the publisher and his family living upstairs. D.O. Batchelor bought the newspaper business in 1916. Later, this was the John Baldwin store, the Paul F. Randolph real estate office, the Cook World Tourist Office, and a clothing store.
The first organized church in Pinellas County, founded by Rev. C.S. Reynolds on March 25, 1866, was the Midway Baptist Church. Its first building located on the site of the present Clearwater Cemetery. The building also served as the first organized school in the county, with Jennie Reynolds Plumb as its first teacher. It was renamed Clearwater Baptist Church in 1878.
That first log cabin was replaced by a clapboard building on the east side of S. Fort Harrison Ave. near Jeffords St., on land donated in 1887 by Mr. Williams. A larger church was built in 1908 on the southeast corner of Fort Harrison Ave. and Hendricks St.
This building site was bought in 1920 by Elizabeth A. Whitmire, a winter resident from Greenville, South Carolina, for $15,000. She worked secretly with pastor A.J. Kroelinger to built the church, pledging $117,500 for its construction. A church with a gilded dome was built here in 1923. The auditorium was completed in 1926. Except for the pastor, no one knew who had paid for the church until Ms. Whitmire died in 1928.
The congregation desired to move to another site, but it was determined that the church building could not be relocated. It was torn down in 2006.
In 1928, the Clearwater Yacht Club was located here. In 1936, the top floor was moved off the beach pavilion and across Mandalay Rd. to become the clubhouse.
This area was called Clear Water Harbor because of the clear offshore spring which bubbles into the Gulf of Mexico.
By 1888, there was a public dock here at the foot of Cleveland St., to serve the 18 families who lived in Clearwater. In 1902, the Clearwater Pier Company built another public dock and pavilion, and later donated them to the city.
The Memorial Causeway leading to Clearwater Beach was dedicated as a memorial to the heroes of World War I. It replaced the two-mile bridge located north of here in 1927.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
An Uncommon Guide to Florida, by Nina McGuire (Tailored Tours Publications, Inc. 1992)
Black Florida, by Kevin M. McCarthy (Hippocrene Books 1995)
Clearwater: A Pictorial History, by Michael Sanders (The Donning Company 1983)
Clearwater: A Sparkling City, by Roy Cadwell (T.S. Denison & Company, Inc. 1977)
Florida Historic Stained Glass Survey: Sites of Historic Windows in Public Facilities in the State of Florida, by Robert O. Jones (Florida Members of the Stained Glass Association of America 1995)
Florida Portrait: A Pictorial History of Florida, by Jerrell Shofner (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1990)
Florida Southern College: The First 100 Years, by Theodore M. Haggard (Florida Southern College 1985)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Florida's Pinellas Peninsula, by June Hurley Young (Byron Kennedy and Co. 1984)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Guide to Historical Points of Interest in Clearwater, by Clearwater Historical Society
Guide to the Small and Historic Lodgings of Florida, by Herbert L. Hiller (Pineapple Press, Inc. 1991)
Historical Tour of Downtown Clearwater, by Clearwater Historical Society
Inventory of the Church Archives of Florida: Baptist Bodies, 25 Pinellas County Baptist Association, (The Florida Historical Records Survey Project 1940)
Largo: Then 'til ..., by Bicentennial History Book Committee (Largo Area Historical Society 1975)
Pinellas County Historic Structures and Sites, by Pinellas County Diamond Jubilee Committee (1987)
Pinellas County Historical Background, by The Pinellas County Planning Department (1986)
The Pioneer Churches of Florida, by The Daughters of the American Revolution (The Mickler House 1976)
Rails 'Neath the Palms, by Robert W. Mann (Darwin Publications 1983)
Wish You Were Here: A Grand Tour of Early Florida Via Old Post Cards, by Hampton Dunn (Byron Kennedy and Company 1981)
Yesterday's Clearwater, by Hampton Dunn (E.A. Seeman Publishing, Inc. 1973)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.