If you haven’t been downtown lately, you may not have seen all of the activity taking place at the historic Grayl’s Hotel property, located at 340 Beach Drive NE. The 1920′s era hotel was purchased last year by a St. Petersburg developer, and good things are about to happen!
While the very cool ‘look and feel’ of the building’s exterior will remain, the interior, which was a hodgepodge mix of 22 rooms badly in need of updating, has been gutted. It will be replaced by an (obviously) entirely new interior, including a first-rate kitchen facility, a period lobby, upscale rooms, plus a new 8,000 square foot fourth floor with a ballroom and accommodations for events and meetings. There will also be a fifth floor open-air lounge and bar with an incredible view of Tampa Bay. When it reopens, Grayl’s will be known as Birchwood Inn. Downstairs, there will be a new bar and restaurant as well as a covered side patio.
Since I love frequenting the wonderful places to eat along Beach Drive, it will be easy for me to keep an eye on progress, so I will post again when progress warrants it. The owner of the hotel anticipates completion by the end of 2012. If you’d like to see an artist’s rendering of the new facility, check out this link. The area in grey in the rendering is new construction, while the rest is renovated existing structure.
(Please note: I always upload a high resolution photo that looks much nicer than what you see below. Please click on the photo below to open the higher quality version in your browser…)
So, in this blog, in addition to posting about places, people, happenings, and history, I also like to post about things to do. Everyone has their own tastes, and if what I like to do doesn’t appeal to you, then just ignore me freely and go back to whatever it is that YOU love! But for folks who are either new to St. Petersburg or are just unaware of some of the things that are available, I occasionally like to share my passions.
This post is about a Photowalk. For people who love photography, while it’s certainly fun to go off and explore the world and take photos on your own, there is something really nice about joining up with other like-minded folks who can show you new places, share their knowledge and experiences, and just provide comraderie. For photographers, there are groups in most big cities and some small towns – groups that put together Photowalks on a regular basis. There are a few of these groups in our area, and I have been a member of one of them – The Florida Center for Creative Photography – for about three years. I won’t go into details of the group here, because you can get the lowdown straight from the horse’s mouth by going to this link and checking it out for yourselves!
Anyway, yesterday I met up with just a few other folks at a little park, just across the bridge, that I had never heard of before – Cypress Point Park. The park is directly under the flight path for jets landing at TIA. I got a few fun shots – here are a couple of them…
(Please note – I always upload a high resolution image that is much nicer to look at than what you initially see below – click on either photo to open up the high res version in your browser.)
Since Bill Edwards purchased the Baywalk shopping complex several months ago, I’ve been watching and waiting, excited to know that change is coming and looking forward to the new shops and restaurants that he will bring. Well, I was walking downtown yesterday and I see that the change has begun! Before any reconstruction, Edwards is demolishing the front building on Second Avenue N that used to house White House Black Market (WHBM is still alive and well – it’s moved just a bit west to the old location of the Ann Taylor shop). By demolishing that front building, he hopes to ‘open up’ the complex and make it more visible and accessible to the public.
I will keep an eye on the progress and will report here from time to time. But today, for my first post, I thought I’d play around a bit with my photo, since it’s not inherently exciting to see a fenced-off building that is sitting empty, waiting for demolition. So, as I processed my five photos to create an HDR shot worthy of posting, I chose to select some aberrant settings, grunging it up a bit! I hope you enjoy the look… (Please note: I always upload a high resolution image, so if you click on the picture, it will open the high res image in your browser – much nicer to look at than what you initially see here…)
Yesterday morning, I took a break from the ‘work’ part of my job and opted to check out the Surreal Parade that was taking place to celebrate the official move from the original Dali Museum in its old warehouse building to the shiny, beautiful new $36 million dollar masterpiece on the waterfront next to Mahaffey Theater. I thought that I might catch an interesting photo or two for this blog, and I did. And, although some of my other photos are certainly more surreal by design, this shot was my favorite of the parade. As this formerly calm and peaceful horse walked down Third Street with Spanish Royalty riding in the carriage behind, it was suddenly spooked by some movement in the parade ahead, and it opted to register its concern with a couple of unplanned moves! After the jumping, there was a momentary, very sudden burst of forward speed, and then the driver was able to calm the horse down and resume a normal pace. But for a few seconds, it was pretty exciting to see! The small size of the photo here doesn’t do it justice, but if you click on it, you’ll get a larger image.
Anyway, there were hundreds of people who came out to watch the parade of Dali-esque beings who made the journey from old home to new. I’m not going to write about the details of the new museum – much better for you to get your information straight from the source, at the Dali Museum website. Rather, I’ve chosen to show you another parade image or two, as well as a shot of the front of the new Dali. It looks absolutely spectacular – I’m very excited to make my first visit!
The Florida Orchestra’s Annual Free Pops in the Park concert takes place tomorrow, October 16th, at 7:00 PM in Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg. Once again this year, it looks as though the concert timing coincides perfectly with our new cool front that arrived just last night, so it should be a glorious evening to throw down a blanket, eat a picnic dinner (or maybe just dessert), and enjoy the wonderful music that the Florida Orchestra always delivers. The park setting is just a very fun way to listen to the Orchestra, and the musicians always seem to thrive on this outdoor setting – I guess it’s a nice change of pace for them. If you want to get a good spot for your blanket, go early – this is a very popular happening! And, as always, the concert finishes off with the 1812 Overture, played at the same time as a nice little fireworks display is set off over the Vinoy Basin – it’s a perfect pairing! If you’d like to go, and you’re not familiar with Vinoy Park, it’s at the far east end of 5th Avenue North, where 5th Avenue dead-ends at Tampa Bay. Parking will be available at lots around the downtown area, or along Beach Drive or along NorthShore Park…
This concert has been presented for free, outdoors, each year for the past seventeen years thanks, in large part to local Realtor Helen Torres who seventeen years ago pledged $20,000 per year to the Florida Orchestra for the next twenty years in exchange for this annual outdoor concert/gift to St. Petersburg. Three more years in her pledge – I hope that, at the end of the twenty years, someone else steps up and takes over for Helen. In the meanwhile, we’ll continue to attend each year and to enjoy the music. In the words of Joni Mitchell, they’ll be ”playin’ real good, for free”. Just another one of the many reasons that St. Petersburg is a fantastic place to live and play!
I first posted about The Fresh Market coming to St. Petersburg back on November 4th of 2009. The southwest corner of 4th Street North and 30th Avenue, which was, many years ago, the Cocoanut Grove Motel, then the Cocoanut Grove Shops, was about to have a new raison d’etre as the 100th store in The Fresh Market family. And this morning, The Fresh Market opened its doors. With free shopping bags and coffee samples to the first 1,000 visitors, lots of samples, and plans for outdoor grilling today at lunchtime, the store is fully stocked and ready to go. When I stopped in early this morning to get a few pictures, there was even a chef cooking bacon, French Toast, and other breakfast goodies for anyone who happened to smell the wonderful aroma and see his table (they even served little cups of pure Maple syrup to complement the French Toast!) The store is airy and open and big and it’s filled with fresh produce, meats, fish, fresh baked pies, pastries, breads, wines, candy, coffees (including my favorite, fresh from San Francisco, Peet’s Coffee), flowers and lots more. Stop by and check it out – you won’t be disappointed!
One week from tomorrow, on Saturday, September 25th, St. Petersburg residents will get the chance to experience Arts Alive Free Museum Day! St. Petersburg’s major museums will throw open their doors and welcome everyone in, free of charge! This will be the sixth annual event, done in coordination with the Smithsonian Institute and Smithsonian Magazine. The event is taking place in many major cities around the country, so if you’re not near St. Petersburg, be sure to check your local media for details in your area. But for St. Petersburg, I can tell you that you will be welcomed, at no cost, at the following great museums:
- The Dali Museum
- Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum
- Florida Holocaust Museum
- Great Explorations Children’s Museum
- Morean Arts Center and Hot Shop
- Museum of Fine Arts
- Pier Aquarium
- St. Petersburg Museum of History
For more details, such as addresses, museum hours, description of current exhibitions, etc, you can check out this link on the City of St. Petersburg’s website.
And if you’d like a larger version of any of the photos shown here, just click on the individual image.
I love it when, during a trip to some other city, either in Florida or out, we accidentally come upon a bakery while we’re walking around in the city’s downtown or other shopping district. I admit it; I’m a fanatic for delicious bakery treats. And I have wished, for so long, that someone would open a bakery in downtown St. Pete. Don’t get me wrong – there are some great places downtown with treats, including the Cupcake Spot, on Central Avenue, next to Shakolad.
But a full bakery, with lots of amazing choices! That’s what I’ve been waiting for! And it happened, early yesterday morning, at the new Cassis Bakery on Beach Drive. French pastries, croissants, eclairs, artisan breads, even homemade sorbets and ice cream. If you’re a sweet lover and a downtown St. Pete lover, now’s your chance – you definitely have an excuse to indulge! Take a sneak peek by checking out the photos below – for a better look at any of them, click on the photo for a full-size version.
My younger sister was born at Mound Park Hospital in St. Petersburg in the 1950′s. My two children were born at Bayfront Medical Center in the 1980′s. Yet all of them were born in the very same hospital. Yes, it expanded (and expanded some more) and got a name change, but the very hospital that you see in the scan of an old postcard, below, still exists as the ‘old’ wing of today’s Bayfront Medical Center. In fact, if you walk around to the rear of the hospital today, you can still see some of the portions of the original building. Compare the architectural style of the postcard with the style of the photo (just below the postcard) that I took of the rear of BMC — you can see that it is the same! Then, check out the photo at the very bottom, showing the main entrance of Bayfront today, and you’ll see virtually no sign at all of the old Mound Park building that is still there!
Something else that disappeared, over the years, to make room for expansion, was the enormous Indan Shell Mound that was on the hospital grounds and for which Mound Park was named. At some point, the need to grow the hospital became so great that the city leveled the mound – something that I am very sure would not be allowed to happen today!
For a larger view of any of the photos, just click on the photo itself.
I know, pictures of pelicans in St. Petersburg are a dime a dozen… And you certainly can’t hang out near the Pier or the Marina downtown without seeing plenty of them. But when I was downtown last Saturday, trying to catch a perfect sunrise, this particular pelican stood out – or, rather, stood still. He was completely unperturbed by my presence, and even as I stepped to within two feet of him he just continued to watch me. Maybe a bit warily, but he did not budge. For that, he gets to be published! (For a larger image, please click on the picture.)
