Compiled from the work of James Anthony Schnur, a historian and the Nelson Poynter Memorial Library’s special collections librarian; websites of USFSP; the Tampa Bay Times; the Tampa Tribune; and “From Mangroves to Major League: A Timeline of St. Petersburg, Florida,” by Rick Baker.
Why is our school called the University of South Florida? St. Petersburg and Tampa are not in south Florida.
When the Florida Legislature authorized a new university in Tampa in 1956, it became the southernmost
university in the state. (The existing universities were the University of Florida in Gainesville and Florida
State and Florida A&M in Tallahassee). State Rep. Sam Gibbons (who later served in Congress for many
years) thought the name South Florida would help get the support of legislators in the southern part of
the state. He was right.
How did Tampa become the site of the main USF campus? Why not St. Petersburg or another location in Pinellas County?
In fact, there was spirited competition between civic leaders and newspapers in Hillsborough County
and their counterparts in Pinellas. The St. Petersburg Times and its feisty editor, Nelson Poynter,
campaigned to put the university here. But Tampa, which was bigger than St. Petersburg and had more
clout in the state capital, prevailed.
Our campus now covers about 52 acres, with plans for expansion. What used to be here?
For the first 13 years, the campus was confined to about 11.8 acres on a finger of land that juts out into
Bayboro Harbor and today is home of the USF College of Marine Science, the state Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission and our swimming pool. The first campus buildings had housed the U.S.
Maritime Service Training Station between 1939 and 1950 and the provisional campus of Florida
Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) from 1959 until it moved to its present location in 1963.
What about the rest of the campus?
The university began expanding to the north and west in 1978, when it broke ground on the buildings
along the north shore of Bayboro Harbor that are today called Bayboro and Davis halls. They supplanted
a hotel, a venetian blinds manufacturer, marine repair shops and other businesses. As the city of St.
Petersburg bought more land over the years, the expansion eventually reached its present day
boundaries of Fifth Avenue S on the north and Fourth Street S on the west.
So the city of St. Petersburg has been a partner of the university and its expansion?
Yes. City officials have long embraced the university and recognized its importance in the social,
economic and intellectual fabric of the city. They were galvanized into action in the mid‐1970s when
university leaders toyed with the idea of moving the campus to a larger site in Clearwater.
There were proposals to move the campus to Clearwater?
Yes. But in February 1975, voters in Clearwater rejected a proposal that called for the donation of more
than 100 acres for a campus there. That got the attention of St. Petersburg, which began condemning
the land for a dramatically expanded campus footprint here.
Has our campus, which first opened for students in 1965, always been called USF St. Petersburg?
No. For the first three years, it was known as the Bay Campus. Then in 1968, it became the Bayboro
Campus of USF or USF Bayboro – monikers that stuck for years. The name USF St. Petersburg dates
back to 1969, and until the 1990s many called it the “USF St. Petersburg Campus,” a branch of USF.
Separating USFSP academic programs and services from the direct control of USF Tampa came after an
unsuccessful legislative effort to create a new school called Suncoast University and transfer almost all
of the Bayboro buildings and programs there.
Suncoast University?
Yep. That was the idea of a powerful state senator named Don Sullivan, who was unhappy with St.
Petersburg’s role as a stepchild of the big Tampa campus (and who apparently had notions of becoming
an administrator at the new institution). His idea was defeated, but it was a wake‐up call for university
leaders on both sides of the bay. They agreed to expanded programs, new buildings and increased
autonomy for the St. Petersburg campus. In 2006, USFSP was awarded separate accreditation by the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Who was Nelson Poynter, whose name adorns our library?
For 40 years, Poynter ran the St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times), which during his tenure
became one of America’s best newspapers. Poynter was a fervent champion of St. Petersburg and
education, and his support of the university reflected both passions. He was a generous contributor to
the university. He died of a stroke on June 15, 1978, just hours after he proudly took part in the
groundbreaking for the first major expansion of the then‐tiny campus.
Who was Lowell Davis, the namesake of Lowell E. Davis Memorial Hall?
Davis, a biologist and academic administrator who came to St. Petersburg from Syracuse University in
1986, was dean of the campus and its top executive for three years. It was a heady time for the fledgling
school, and the popular Davis led efforts to expand its ambitions, footprint and curriculum. The
community was stunned when he suffered a stroke and died in 1989 at the age of 58.
Why isn’t Coquina Hall named for somebody?
Before the building was dedicated in 1984, then‐Dean John Hinz and the faculty recommended that it be
named in honor of Zora Neale Hurston, a renowned author and Florida native. But then‐President John
Lott Brown decided to name the building after the shells that covered it.
What’s the story behind the bull statute on Harborwalk in front of the University Student Center?
The 850‐pound bronze statue was installed in February 2013. The anatomically correct bull cost
$10,000, which came from Student Government’s capital account.
How long has Albert Whitted, the nearby airport, been here?
Far longer than most of the buildings and institutions in St. Petersburg. The airport, which is owned and
operated by the city, covers 110 acres. It opened in 1929, but the downtown waterfront had seen
aviation activity since 1914, when a Benoist “airboat” based there began America’s first scheduled
commercial flight service with twice‐daily flights to Tampa. When the novelty wore off several months
later, the flights ended.
Who was Albert Whitted?
He was a native of St. Petersburg and aviation pioneer who was killed when his plane crashed near
Pensacola in 1923.
Anything notable about the airport?
The tiny facility figures in aviation history. Goodyear stationed one of its famous blips there for 15 years
starting in 1930. One of the nation’s first airline companies – National Airlines – was based there. And in
1985, the airport made national news when a retired couple from Chicago got lost, mistook one of the
runways for Interstate 275 and drove off the seawall into Tampa Bay. They were fished out of neck‐deep
water, unharmed, by firefighters training nearby.
Has the airport impeded the growth of our campus?
Yes, at least vertically. Under city codes, Florida law and rules of the Federal Aviation Administration,
buildings that lie underneath the airport’s flight patterns can’t exceed certain heights. Over the years,
some campus leaders have supported proposals to close the airport or at least close its east‐west
runway. Those proposals went nowhere.
How did the impressive Salvador Dali Museum end up in St. Petersburg just northeast of campus?
It’s an improbable story. In 1980, a young St. Petersburg lawyer named James Martin read in the Wall
Street Journal that a Cleveland couple were looking for a place to showcase their $70 million collection
of paintings by the famously weird artist. Martin cold‐called them to pitch St. Petersburg, then helped
marshal a charm offensive by civic leaders, city officials and the state Legislature that ultimately
persuaded the couple to pick St. Petersburg over Denver and Austin, Texas.
Is USFSP affiliated with the Dali?
The university and museum have a formal collaboration agreement. Students, faculty and staff have free
access to the museum, museum staff lecture at the university and the museum hosts regular community
conversations between faculty and members of the community. When the museum moved into its new,
$36 million home in 2011, the university got its former quarters, now called Harbor Hall, at 1000 Third
St. S. It is home for the Department of Verbal and Visual Arts.
St. Petersburg and its downtown are known as a hip destination for pleasure‐seeking young people, tourists and opportunity‐seeking millennials. Has the city always been this cool?
Hardly. For years, television comedians and national magazines derided St. Petersburg as “God’s waiting
room” and the “city of green benches,” where hordes of seniors shared the downtown sidewalks with
pigeons.
What happened?
A happy confluence of stuff. The Vinoy Hotel, which had been closed for 18 years, was lovingly restored
– at a cost of $93 million ‐‐ and when it reopened in 1992, it became a crown jewel of downtown. A
now‐defunct international museum brought hundreds of thousands of people downtown between 1995
and 2010. Major League Baseball arrived in 1998, and on‐again‐off‐again auto street racing, which began
in 1985, morphed into a high‐profile Grand Prix race in 2005 that draws an estimated 140,000 fans each
spring. The 1990s brought stirrings of an art renaissance that has snowballed in recent years, and
numerous condo and apartment towers have been built, with more on the way.
What role has the university played in St. Petersburg’s surge?
It’s been huge. The growth of the university has brought thousands of young people to the city, which
led in turn to stores, restaurants and night spots that serve them. The university itself is a partner to a
number of museums, hospitals and research institutions that lie within a few blocks of the campus in an
area that city leaders call the “Innovation District.”
What’s the story on those two old homes on Second Street S just south of the Welcome Center?
They are two of the city’s oldest buildings. The Snell House, built in 1904 by developer C. Perry Snell, was
moved to the campus in August 1993. It’s the headquarters for the university’s honors and Florida
Studies programs. The Williams House was built in 1890‐91 by John C. Williams, a co‐founder of the
city. It was moved here in March 1995. The University Advancement staff has offices on the second floor;
the first floor is used for meetings and special events.
How long has the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team played at Al Lang Stadium, three blocks north of the campus?
For five years. The stadium is much better known as a home for Major League Baseball spring training.
It is named for Al Lang, a former mayor who persuaded the St. Louis Browns to train here in 1914. Over
the years, seven teams trained at Al Lang and its predecessor, Waterfront Park, including the St. Louis
Cardinals of Stan Musial (1938‐1942 and 1946‐1997) and the New York Yankees of Babe Ruth, Joe
DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle (1925‐1942, 1946‐1950 and 1952‐1961). When St. Petersburg got a major
league franchise in 1998, the Tampa Bay Rays (first called the Devil Rays) played spring training games
here until 2008. The Rowdies, who on most nights draw several thousand fans – and lots of USFSP
students – moved into Al Lang in 2011.
Babe Ruth trained in St. Petersburg?
Yes. And nobody enjoyed the city more than the Bambino. He played golf, fished in the gulf, went to the
dog track, visited sick kids in the hospital, partied with the ladies and drank gallons of Prohibition‐era
hooch. Oh, and he also played a lot of baseball. According to legend, he hit a home run here that
traveled more than over 600 feet. That would make it the longest blast in Major League history.
