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 for Dr. John Banyon Abercrombie who came to St. Petersburg in 1883 from Natchez, Mississippi. He donated land for the settlement's first church and was St. Petersburg's first practicing physician.
The Indian mound in this park may have been used for cremation, sacrifices, or as a place for the shaman to live. This is one of a complex of 23 mounds originally stretching from about 15th Ave. N to the Seminole Bridge. Over the years, the size of the mound has been substantially reduced and is difficult to find.
Here, at the Lighthouse Point intersection, is the end of a midden which dates back to about 1000 A.D. The mound stretches from 42nd Ave. to south of 40th Ave. Since it's mostly under pavement, it hasn't been visible as a mound for many years.
Beneath these homes is one of the largest temple mounds in the Tampa Bay area. It was likely built by the Glades People, who migrated here from the southern part of the state about 1000 A.D.
In the early days, this road was the route from Boca Ciega Bay to St. Petersburg, and was called John's Pass Rd. In 1910, it was one of the first roads in the lower portion of the Pinellas Peninsula to be hard-surfaced.
The Jungle Prada building was erected by Walter Fuller in 1924 atop a large burial mound. Construction was complicated because of all the human skeletons in the way. It was built to accommodate the first shopping center in the county. The Gangplank night club, inside the Jungle Prado, had the county's first terrazzo floors. The square onion tower domes, stucco walls and other Moorish details may be replaced by modern homes.
The Narvaez Midden Mound is located here. It is about 900 feet long and 300 feet wide and runs parallel to the shore between Park St. and Boca Ciega Bay. Most of its height is obscured by thick foliage.
Walter P. Fuller placed this large sign on this property to commemorate the landing site of Panfilo de Narvaez, the first non-Indian to explore this country. Later, the Theodore Anderson family erected a permanent marker to honor Alvar Nunez Cabez de Vaca, who was second in command to Narvaez and one of only four men to survive the eight-year expedition.
In 1965, this was confirmed to be the camp site of Narvaez, who landed on the shore of Boca Ciega Bay on April 14 or 15, 1528.
"French John" Levach, who settled near here under a permit issued in 1843 pursuant to the Armed Occupation Act of 1842, was sailing home from New Orleans, a little to the west of here with Joe Silva on September 27, 1848. It was just after a devastating hurricane which opened an 830 foot wide pass through the barrier island at the south end of present-day Madeira Beach.
Silva named it after his friend, and the name John's Pass remains. In 1848, it was in the vicinity of 140th Ave. and Gulf Blvd. Since then, it has shifted south about 5000 feet to 128th Ave.
Levach died in 1869, and his homestead passed to a Tampa grocer to settle an unpaid $46 outstanding bill.
This school opened for the school year of 1922-23 as Pasadena Elementary School
This church was founded in 1925.
This building was dedicated in February of 1963, while the congregation was under the leadership of Rabbi David J. Susskind.
Once located here was a brownstone entrance gate built by "Handsome" Jack Taylor during the 1920s for his new residential development that you just passed through. He and his wife, Evelyn, turned the former Davista Subdivision into the succeesful Pasadena-on-the-Gulf, extending to Boca Ciega Bay.
In 1937, Dr. Thomas D. McEwan established an institution here specializing in the treatment of alcoholics. It accepted patients from throughout the U.S. It later became the Swanholm Nursing and Rehabilitative Center.
This church building was erected here in 1955.
This church opened here in 1957 as the Pilgrim Congregational Church. Heritage Hall, the educational wing on the east side, was added in 1966.
This building, later housing a dress shop, was built by Jack Taylor to serve as his real estate sales office in the 1920s. It was later the home of an antiques store.
The St. Petersburg Golf Development Company opened the Jungle Golf Course here in 1916, stretching from 5th Ave. N to 22nd Ave. S, and from Park St. to 74th St.
The former Jungle Country Club Hotel, designed by Henry Taylor with a Mediterranean Revival style and built by Walter P. Fuller in 1925, is now the home of Admiral Farragut Academy. That institution in Toms River, New Jersey, selected this as its Florida unit in 1944. The hotel was the home of the city's first radio station, later known as WSUN.
This home was built in 1931 with a design by architect Addison Mizner as the winter residence of the William J. Williams family, of the Cincinnati-based Western Southern Life Insurance Co. Oscar J. Steinert built it with a Mediterranean Revival design and a wide variety of window designs. It has a two-story rotunda entered through sliding glass doors from an east-facing open terrace. The interior is lavishly decorated with wrought-iron railings and cast-stone columns. This was the last large home designed by Mizner, and the only one on Florida's gulf coast. The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Henry H. DuPont designed this Mediterranean Revival home, built for Thomas W. Miller in 1926. Miller, a rubber tire manufacturer from Ohio, was not socially accepted in Palm Beach, so he built on this side of the state. The house is stucco-covered masonry with a barrel-tile roof. The interior has wrought iron, decorative tiles, marble floors, and a beamed ceiling. This was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
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)
Indian Mounds You Can Visit, by I. Mac Perry (Great Outdoors Publishing Company 1993)
Mizner's Florida: American Resort Architecture, by Donald W. Curl (Architectural History Foundation 1987)
Our Story of Gulfport, Florida, by Gulfport Historical Society (1985)
St. Petersburg and Its People, by Walter P. Fuller (Great Outdoors Publishing Co. 1972)
The Story of St. Petersburg, by Karl H. Grismer (P.K. Smith & Company 1948)
Surf, Sand & Post Card Sunsets: A History of Pass-A-Grille and the Gulf Beaches, by Frank T. Hurley, Jr. (1977)
Yesterday's St. Petersburg, by Hampton Dunn (E.A. Seeman Publishing, Inc. 1973)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.