At the turn of the 20th century, life in St. Petersburg centered around the immediate downtown. Families living north of 5th Avenue were living in the country, tending to cattle and oranges. Although early homes date back to 1898, the Historic Uptown area, and especially Round Lake was a tropical paradise until the housing boom of 1908- 1917 pushed St. Pete residents past 9th Avenue North.
Over the next two decades Bungalow, Tudor and Mediterranean Revival and even Art Moderne style homes eventually popped up everywhere on the “outskirts” of town near the pretty circular lake.
Before it became part of the city’s spectacular park system, Round Lake was first seen as a health hazard, and later a tourist attraction. The Health Board wanted Round Lake filled in 1913, drainage and overflow was polluting nearby water wells. That year, the City’s park commissioners ordered the use of sand dredged from Reservoir Lake (Mirror Lake) to create the park around the lake. Its banks sloped to create an amphitheater for future concerts. Muck removed from Round Lake was used to fertilize the brand new waterfront parks lining Beach Drive.
With St. Pete quickly becoming a hot spot for tourists, in 1916, Board of Parks chairman Roy S. Hanna wanted to turn Round Lake into an alligator farm, rivaling the famed tourist attraction in St. Augustine. “The alligator – the original Florida inhabitant – is rapidly disappearing.” said Hanna.
Apparently the rest of the board did not agree and Round lake remained a city park. In 1922 the Board of Trade (today’s Chamber of Commerce) funded the construction of an observation station on the north shore of the lake, and in the 1950s/60s, the City parks & recreation department held the annual children’s fish-a-thon at Round Lake.
Find more historical photos like this one on the St. Petersburg Museum of History website: spmoh.com.
