ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — It’s hard to imagine the Tampa Bay area without St. Pete Beach, but the popular destination for tourists and locals alike didn’t always exist.
Well, the land certainly did, but it wasn’t always St. Pete Beach.
Before 1957, the area that we know now as one of the best beaches in the nation was then known as Long Key and it actually consisted of four towns – St. Petersburg Beach, Pass-a-Grille, Don CeSar Place and Belle Vista Beach – plus an unincorporated part of Pinellas County, according to Lynn Rosetti, the Senior Planner for the city of St. Pete Beach.
But, on July 9, 1957, a controversial vote took place that ultimately consolidated Long Key into the City of St. Petersburg Beach.
The vote was close, with the Long Key consolidation decided by only five votes, 758 to 753, according to the book, “Surf, Sand, & Post Card Sunsets” written by Frank Hurley, who was a St. Pete Beach realtor and historian.
Hurley writes that voters in Belle Vista Beach, Don CeSar Place and unincorporated areas tipped the scales in favor of the consolidation; voters in St. Petersburg Beach and Pass-a-Grille were against the consolidation. Opponents demanded a recount but ultimately the consolidation went through and the City of St. Petersburg Beach was born.
Then, 37 years later, St. Petersburg Beach would become a thing of the past, due in part to confusion with its relation (or lack thereof) to the city of St. Petersburg.
In 1994, voters decided to shorten their city’s name to St. Pete Beach.
As reported by the Tampa Bay Times, “St. Petersburg Beach was too long to fit on auto and fire insurance policies, and the city was missing out on funding for police and fire pensions because residents were listing St. Petersburg as their residence.”
The move to shorten the name distinguished the city as its own entity.
And now, it’s hard to think of it as anything else.
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