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.
AS OF SEPTEMBER 2009, SPONSORSHIP OF THIS TRAIL HAS CHANGED. PLEASE DIRECT ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT IT TO CUB SCOUT PACK 7 NEW PORT RICHEY, RAYTHEON NETWORK CENTRIC SYSTEMS, MAIL STOP 1500 ATT: MATT O&R, 7887 BRYAN DAIRY ROAD, LARGO, FL 33777, [email protected].
The earlier name of this land was Enchantment Park. On December 16, 1924, it was renamed in honor of George Sims, who donated it with a clubhouse to the city. Since 1924, it has been the home of the Civic Club, which formed in 1916. A bandshell was erected here in 1925.
In the park is the chapel of Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church, moved here and dedicated on February 24, 2005. It had been located at 6710 Washington St. until the police station was relocated there in 2001.
Now a chapel, it was the first sanctuary of the Catholic congregation, dedicated on March 9, 1919. The church had been established in 1913 when the first mass in the western part of the county was held in the home of Mr. and Mrs. James H. Casey.
The Civic Club bought a fire bell for the city in 1920, and it was installed in the belfry of the church. In September of 1921, a 125-mile-per-hour wind knocked off the belfry and turned the building from having a southern exposure to a western one. Father Ullrich was inside at the time, but he was not hurt. The 1919 building was superseded by a larger church on High St.
This operated from 1916 until 1922 as a two-room school at Seven Springs. In it, one teacher taught all six grades. In 1922, the school closed and the students began attending another in Elfers.
In 1925, this building then became the residence of T.J. Witt, who had owned the land on which it sat. In 1927, it was bought by the Frierson family, and in 1980 it was acquired by the West Pasco Historical Society which moved it to Sims Park. It is now the home of the West Pasco Museum.
The first bandstand was constructed in 1922, and was replaced by another in Sims Park. It was moved to this location in 1982.
This 55-room luxury hotel opened on February 4, 1927, in an attempt to attract the movie industry to Florida, with this hotel as its center. During the 1920s, many celebrities visited New Port Richey, inlcuding Thomas Meighan, Ed Wynn, Leon Errol, Madeline Cameron, Frances Ring and Flora Zabelle, plus noted writers such as Bob Davis, George Ade, Ring Lardner and Hal W. Lanigan. Most stayed at the Hacienda. Thomas Meighan, Raymond Hitchcock and golfer Gene Sarazen built homes here. Irving Berlin and Paul Whiteman purchased property, but did not build homes.
It was owned by the Community Hotel, Inc., headed by Warren E. Burns, James E. Meighan, James H. Becker and Charles F. Hoffman. Arthur A. Broadmoor served as its first manager. James Meighan provided the nine lots and George J. Becker and Warren E. Burns built the hotel. During the Depression, it went bankrupt and changed hands several times. In 1986, it was renovated as a geriatric residential treatment center.
Designed by architect Thomas Reed Martin of Sarasota, it has a Mediterranean Revival style with corner towers and a pyramidal roof. It has a U-shaped plan around a central courtyard.
The Gulf State Bank opened at another location on July 15, 1952. It moved to a new building here in 1956, and had the first drive-in window in the area. In 1960, the bank expanded by 2,000 square feet. It became First National Bank of New Port Richey on December 31, 1962. The bank moved out at the beginning of 1967.
American Industrial Savings Bank (later called American Security Bank) opened on March 7, 1968, and occupied this building.
The Board of Trade was established in 1915-16, and became the Chamber of Commerce in 1929. Its office was located in the Arcade Building in the 1940s, and was later at 125 W. Main St. In 1964, the Chamber moved to 515 W. Main St., and this building was constructed for it in 1970-71.
This bank, once known as Gulf State Bank, moved here on January 2, 1967, from the corner of Main and Bank Sts. This was the first New Port Richey building to have a passenger elevator. Later, it became the home of NationsBank.
The first Western Union office in New Port Richey was established about a block north of here on March 19, 1926.
This subdivision was laid out in 1924 by Warren E. Burns and James H. Becker. Becker's 1920s home at 5603 Palmetto Rd. was restored in the early 1990s by Robert and Carolyn Marlowe. Lot purchasers included Thomas Meighan and golfer Gene Sarazen, who became the club pro at the nearby golf course.
Sarazen had a two-story Spanish style house built for him. Meighan had an estate along the river with 641 feet of road frontage. It included 3 acres of citrus and a $125,000 house with 13 rooms and a large pool. As you walk north on Jasmine Dr., the walled section backed up by bamboo was the Meighan homestead. The pool has been filled in and the only building which remains from the 1920s is the adjacent bathhouse.
This building is named after Father Felix Ullrich, who came here in 1913 from St. Leo Abbey to conduct mass for the seven Catholic families in New Port Richey. The Woman's Club, which was founded on August 20, 1923, for many years used this building for its meetings.
This was the first hospital in the western portion of the county, opening in 1965. The 50-bed facility was built by Stob Brothers of Orlando for a cost of $624,296.
In 1967, the Richey Manor Nursing Home started with 60 beds. A wing with another 60-bed capacity was added in 1973.
This congregation organized in New Port Richey in 1914, and held its first services on an outdoor platform made of lumber provided by Rollo Draft. When the weather turned colder, they moved to the school classroom in the Idlewild Apartments.
The Port Richey Company donated this lot, and a $2,500 building was erected and dedicated on February 27, 1916. The church's first pastor was Rev. J.S. Collier. In 1941, Whittle Hall was built for use as a Sunday school, and the educational complex was constructed in phases in 1948-54.
The first service in the new sanctuary was held on November 15, 1964. That same year, the Benbrook Building was completed to expand the educational facility, and was named after Fred Benbrook. In 1967, the old sanctuary was demolished to make room for a parking lot.
A volunteer fire department was created in Elfers in 1922, and by 1938 was known as the New Port Richey Volunteer Fire Department. In early 1940, it moved into a building on Main St. which also included the city offices and council rooms, plus the library. In 1964, the fire department moved to this location.
New Port Richey was incorporated in 1924, but the name New Port Richey dates to 1915 when a post office with that name was established. It and the earlier Port Richey to the north were named after Aaron McLaughlin Richey of St. Joseph, Missouri, who moved to a home along the Pithlachascotee River. He named the area Richey Point, started a post office named Port Richey and was its postmaster, and in 1884 with A.P.K. Safford surveyed the area and began selling lots.
The library began in June of 1919 when Dr. Elroy McKendree Avery donated hundreds of books. Later that same year, the Avery Library and Historical Society was established, and is now known as the New Port Richey Public Library.
The library was located in the Snell Block in 1920, and was later located in The Peninsular Building, the Arcade Building, and the Municipal Building, before moving to 5919 Main St. in November of 1963. It later moved here to the former site of the city hall.
In 1915 on this site, the wooden New Port Richey Grammar School was built to replace the classroom located in the Idlewild Apartments. Julia Harn served as its first teacher. The school was replaced in 1925 by the Pierce Elementary School, whose former building is now the library.
This building, formerly used as the law office of Dan C. Rasmussen, is a restored 1930s cracker house. It later became the home of Russ Building Concepts Incorporated.
When the tracks were taken up from Main St., the old railroad station was moved here and made a part of St. Stephens Episcopal Church. In 1955, the church building was purchased by the World War I Bonnie Barracks Club.
The West Pasco Art Guild, Inc. in 1966 moved into the old firehouse, then into the old Kentucky Inn, and then bought this building.
This organization was established in 1949, and the following year purchased five lots for construction of this clubhouse. Initially, a requirement for membership was Finnish ancestry of the member or spouse, and Finnish was spoken at all club meetings. The clubhouse is presently used by many groups.
This building was erected during the 1920s, and was later called the Boulevard Building. It is the former meeting place of the Eastern Star and has been referred to as the Eastern Star Building.
The telephone exchange was moved here in 1921, to the second floor. It was moved to a new location on Missouri Ave. in January of 1948.
Some references state that the hotel was built in Hudson in 1910, named the Kentucky Inn, and later moved here. A comparison of photographs of both buildings shows that they were not the same building.
The New Port Richey Post was the first newspaper in this city, beginning in 1916. Later, the New Port Richey Press was printed with a hand-operated press in a building at the corner of Main and Adams Sts. On June 24, 1927, the Press moved from the Clark Building to this location.
This building has housed the Grand Central Restaurant, Creations From the Heart, Pasco Infusion and the Gallery.
Grand Blvd. was formerly known as Dixie Blvd., and in 1921 was the only paved street in New Port Richey.
This two-story Mediterranean Revival style commercial building was erected in 1926. It features an octagonal copper-topped corner tower, stucco and ceramic tile, round transom windows, an arched doorway, and clay tile shed roofs over wooden brackets. This was the home of Pasco Hardware and other retail establishments. There are living quarters upstairs.
This building and the county bear the name of Samuel Pasco. He was wounded as a member of the Confederate army, was captured, and spent several months in Union prisons. Following the Civil War, he became a member of the Florida House of Representatives, speaker of the house, and U.S. senator.
This theater was completed in September of 1925 and was named after silent film star and local resident Thomas Meighan. It cost the Richey Amusement Company about $50,000 to have Warren E. Burns and George J. Becker build this with a seating capacity of 500. At first, silent movies were shown, with music provided by a player piano. Sound movies were introduced on March 9, 1930. It was a movie theater until 1968, and later became Richey Suncoast Theatre, a community playhouse.
The building is Mediterranean Revival in style, and features twisted columns, a red clay tile roof, stuccoed walls, a central silver dome, and a large arched entry.
The Tampa and Gulf Coast Railroad Company acquired the properties of the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railway Company in 1913, then leased them to Seaboard Air Line Railway in 1927. The tracks entered New Port Richey from the south and ran on what is now Nebraska Ave., then terminated here. There was a small classification yard extending east to present Jefferson St.
The depot was later converted into a hall for the Spanish-American War Veterans.
This was the first brick building in the city, constructed by George R. Sims in 1919. Light tan sand brick was used, along with decorative wood framing around the windows.
It was owned by realtor Michael L. Milbauer and lawyer Richard J. Milbauer, and is often referred to as the Milbauer Building.
James W. Clark, Jr. built this two-story brick building in 1920. In the late 1930s, this building belonged to Jeseph Weiskopf. It later became the home of the Oasis Bar and The Reef restaurant.
This was one of the offices of George R. Sims. It has also been the home of Ina's Beauty Shop and George Panter's Shoe Repair.
This theatre opened on August 21, 1921, and was the place to be on Saturday nights in New Port Richey during the early 1920s. The theater burned down on January 30, 1938.
On April 10, 1920, the public library first opened here. This building was rented to the Baptist congregation for their services, and to the Masons for lodge meetings, before those groups had their own buildings. It was also the place where the Community Congregational Church was founded. In 1922, the Fred Belin Hardware Store was located in this building.
Gerben DeVries was the first New Port Richey postmaster, handling the mail in a building at the corner of Main St. and Grand Blvd. Later, it moved to a larger space at this intersection, in the same building where the New Port Richey Press began publication. The post office later moved to another building between Grand Blvd. and Adams St., and again moved into the northwest corner of the Arcade Building, which it occupied until 1959.
This collection of stores was completed on August 5, 1927, at a cost of $600,000. In it, the post office was located on the northwest corner from 1927 to 1959. Other businesses located in the building included John Eder's Arcade Jeweler, Ted Lagerberg's Modern Photographers, Register's Grocery, Dr. Frank Y. Robson, and the New Port Richey Chamber of Commerce. For a time, the public library was locted in this building.
This was the site of early railroad depot, which was moved to another location when the tracks here were removed.
In 1915, the wooden Havens Building was erected here. In the early 1920s, the present structure was completed as the Rialto Hotel. It was soon named Chasco after a legend made up as part of a fund-raising festival. Postmaster Gerben M. DeVries created the story in which two members of a Spanish conquistador party became King Pitla and Queen Chasco of the Calusa Indians. He claimed that he had discovered the story on parchment found along the Pithlachascotee River in a clay cylinder. The annual Chasco Fiesta became a local community event.
The building has housed a hotel, bus station, restaurant, camera shop and, until 1927, the post office.
This was the home of the first bank in New Port Richey, which opened on October 15, 1921. Its first president was Elroy M. Avery, after whom the public library was named. The bank closed on June 13, 1931. Rollo Draft bought this building and opened a real estate office in it. He operated a checking bank in connection with the First National Bank of Tarpon Springs for ten years.
The building is distinguished by the angled corner entrance and the lattice transom over the double door. The building later became the home of Casson Engineering.
In the 1920s, the Port Richey Hardware and Supply Co. was located here, selling building supplies.
A.J. Panels and M. Broersma built the Hotel Newport here in 1914. Rooms let for $8 per week. It was later renamed the Magnolia Tavern, and was purchased by Chauncey York in 1923.
The present building was built by Dr. Frank Y. Robson in 1960, and was known as the Robson Professional Building. He served ast he first chief of staff of the West Pasco Hospital.
Across the street is Orange Lake, which was known in the 1800s as Blue Sink. It was later called Mirror Lake until it received its present name in the 1920s. During that same decade, the shore was used as a race track, and in the 1930s as a miniature golf course. It is reputed to have a depth of over 220 feet.
The hotel at this location was built in 1913 and was originally called The Inn. It was operated by Fred and Ollie Sass, and was renamed the Sass Hotel. Later, it was owned by Ray and Laura Poole and renamed the Enchantment Inn. On May 28, 1926, it burned down.
Later, the post office moved here and it is now the site of the Student Ministries for the First Baptist Church.
This church was organized on July 29, 1921, with Rev. A.E. Gammage as its first pastor. After holding services in the Snell Building, they bought this lot in 1923. The first service in the new building, which sat 450, was on July 4, 1926.
In 1914, the first school in New Port Richey consisted of a classroom on the second floor of the wooden apartment building located here, built in about 1911 and then known as the McNatt Building. Corrine Tate of Dade City was its first teacher. It was considered to be a fire trap.
This church was established in Snell Hall by Rev. Milton H. Babcock, with its first service on June 14, 1921. This land was donated for the church by George R. Sims. While the building was being built, it was damaged by the 1921 hurricane, but it was repaied and completed.
A History of Hernando County, by Richard J. Stanaback (Daniels Publishers 1976)
The Genesis of New Port Richey, by Elroy M. Avery (The Avery Library and Historical Society 1924)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
The Historical Places of Pasco County, by James J. Horgan, Alice F. Hall, and Edward J. Herrman (Ralard Printers, Inc. 1992)
The Illustrated Guide to the Florida West Coast, by M.C. Bob Leonard (Purple Islands Production 1992)
Indian Mounds You Can Visit, by I. Mac Perry (Great Outdoors Publishing Company 1993)
Tales of West Pasco, by Ralph Bellwood (Lisa Printing 1973)
West Pasco's Heritage, by West Pasco Historical Society, Inc. (Lisa Printing 1974)
Wish You Were Here: A Grand Tour of Early Florida Via Old Post Cards, by Hampton Dunn (Byron Kennedy and Company 1981)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.