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Pet cemetery in Clearwater is Bruiser’s final resting place

Bruiser the German Shepherd did not have what you may think of as an auspicious beginning. His first owner got rid of him because he bit somebody.

A dog who bites people would probably not be accepted today as a good police dog candidate.  But back in the early 1970s, things may have been a bit looser. The St. Petersburg Police Department wanted to start a canine unit, and Bruiser was available. So that’s what happened – Bruiser became the city’s very first canine officer in the early 1970s.

Officer Bill Trappman became Bruiser’s handler, partner and friend. Together, they rescued a little girl in what was one of the decade’s biggest local crime stories.

In June of 1972, Trappman and Bruiser were called to a home near Booker Creek. An hysterical woman told Trappman that a man had broken into her home and kidnapped her two-year-old daughter.

Bruiser immediately picked up the trail, even though a recent rain had made tracking very difficult. In just a few minutes, Bruiser led Trappman to nearby Booker Creek, and Trappman’s flashlight beam picked up the sight of a man who was slamming the little girl against a tree trunk.

The man tossed the little girl in the creek and then jumped in himself. Trappman went after the girl, while Bruiser pursued the man. The girl survived the incident, and the man, a former convict who had recently been released from prison, went back to jail.
 
Trappman gave all the credit to Bruiser.

“He was everything,” Trappman said later in the St. Petersburg TIMES about his canine partner. “I was just the dummy on the end of the leash. He was the best partner I ever had and the best cop I ever knew.”

Bruiser was eight years old when all that happened. Four years later, when he was 12, the pain in his legs and hips got so bad that Trappman realized the time had come. He carried Bruiser to the vet’s, and he was put to sleep.

According to Trappman, Bruiser sniffed out more than 14,000 pounds of narcotics during his career, and helped send 127 criminals to prison.

*   *   *

On the day after Christmas, we decided to tour Green Mounds Pet Cemetery, a nearly forgotten pet cemetery behind Fletcher’s Harley-Davidson on US19 in Clearwater. The Fletcher family now owns and cares for the cemetery, having taken title to it when they bought a large tract of land behind their motorcycle dealership.

On the farthest corner of the cemetery, in the shade of a tree, we saw a statue of what looked like a German Shepherd dog. As we approached and then scraped the dirt from the closest grave marker, we saw the name “Bruiser.” Another line said, “St. Pete Canine Police.”

Bruiser’s grave is surrounded by a number of other St. Pete Police canines, perhaps 10 or so. They watch over a peaceful and well-cared-for tract that is the final resting place of several hundreds of pets, mostly dogs and cats but also a pony named Twinkles, who has her own fenced plot.

Tags: canine police, Clearwater, St. Petersburg

Clearwater’s Nicole Stott heads for the Space Station

Astronaut and Clearwater native Nicole Stott

This isn’t exactly a real estate story, but it very definitely is a Clearwater story that should make everyone in this part of the world proud.

At 1:36 a.m. tomorrow morning (that’s Tuesday), the space shuttle Discovery will launch from Florida’s Space Center, headed for the Space Station. On board will be Nicole Stott, a 46-year-old astronaut making her first space flight.

Plans are for her to spend around four months on the Space Station. 

Nicole is a Clearwater native who graduated from Clearwater High School and who attended St. Petersburg College. A lot of her Clearwater High School classmates will be heading over to the Space Center today and tonight to be on hand to witness the beginning of Nicole’s trip.

Nicole learned to fly in this area, and her father’s great love was building and flying experimental aircraft. She credits him with inspiring her astronaut career.

Ifr you are up at that hour, go outside and look to the heavens. We usually get a pretty good view of the space shuttle launches in these parts, especially at night. 

Bon voyage, Nicole!

Tags: Clearwater

Carl Cowden III is Tampa Bay’s premier painter of murals

Artist Carl Cowden III

In 1974, while still in high school, Carl Cowden III painted a 4 x 8 panel that was part of a temporary construction wall. That project, part of a contest for students, won him second place. Today, Cowden is Tampa Bay’s premier painter of murals.

He graduated from the University of Tampa in 1978 with a degree in fine arts and then got a job with the Community Design Center as a mural artist. The Community Design Center was a Tampa non-profit that developed building and restoration codes for historic neighborhoods. Between 1978 and 1980, he completed six large public murals.

During those early years, he was also known locally for his music.  His band, the Voodoo Idols, began performing in 1978 and continued until 1986.

Safety Harbor Fire Station mural

While he doesn’t limit his work to murals, the murals may be what he is best known for, and he is proud of the contribution they make to the community.

“Public art adds to the quality of life and property,” Cowden said. “These are images that are enjoyed by generations for generations.”

Cowden’s murals can be found just about anywhere and everywhere in Tampa Bay, and all kinds of clients pay for his services. For example, after the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, the team and the local Outdoor Arts Foundation decided to depict the victory on a 10-foot-by-28-foot oil tank at 39th Street and Adamo Drive. Cowden had to work 130 feet off the ground to get that project completed.

According to Cowden, the lifespan of any mural depend on a number of factors.

Oldsmar City Hall mural

“Of ultimate importance is the condition of the wall before it is painted — the quality of the wall preparation as well as the paint and sealer used to complete the mural,” he said. “The wall must be sealed well, especially at the top. This keeps moisture from seeping behind the paint or substrate, which can destroy it from the inside out.”
 
A public mural’s value is largely determined by the community it serves as well as by the property owner, Cowden said, making the projects very site-specific. The process can be complicated somewhat by the fact that property owners may not live in the local community.

“When I begin a design, I like to speak to the local community and the individuals who will live with it,” he said. “In this way, it is more than just a pretty picture — it is something that has meaning and value to the community. When the people who live with a mural have no say in it, or it deteriorates, or the community loses its unity, its value is diminished and it is subject to vandalism and the owner’s needs.” Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: art, carl cowden, Clearwater, murals, Tampa Bay

Things are happening in Downtown Clearwater

The Rays' Hummer

There’s a lot more to major league baseball than what goes on on the field.

Take the Tampa Bay Rays, for example.  The Rays are a young team, having been formed just 11 years ago. They made it to the World Series last year, but not before nine seasons of last-place baseball. The product on the field simple wasn’t enough to draw fans to the park, so the Rays spent lots of time and money developing community-based efforts that would, hopefully, spark interest in the team.

I saw an example of that effort not long ago in downtown Clearwater.

There is a regular monthly event in downtown Clearwater called Fourth Friday. On the fourth Friday of every month, late in the day, vendors start setting up on Cleveland Street, which has been roped off for just that purpose. People turn out to walk along Cleveland street, buy food and other items from vendors, and just generally enjoy Clearwater’s much-improved downtown.

On the day I was there, the Tampa Bay Rays had their special Hummer there, along with a stage set up to host the Ray’s pre-game and post-game radio shows on WDAE, the Sports Animal. The Rays were actually playing the Florida Marlins in Miami that night, but the live radio programs that opened and closed the game would be coming live from downtown Clearwater.

As workers set up the stage, young Rays employees were busy handing out white Rays t-shirts and other team goodies.

The Rays are always looking for more fans. And Clearwater is always looking for more people to come downtown and enjoy what is offered there.

Tags: baseball, Clearwater, downtown

Shedding a little light on downtown Clearwater real estate

Lamp post in downtown Clearwater

By now you’ve probably figured out that I have something of a weakness for lamp posts. There’s one up at the top of this blog, providing a little illumination for the Pinellas Newsboy. Also, I’ve done posts showing lamp posts in Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, over at Disney and, now in Clearwater.

It’s not just a personal weakness for lamp posts. I think they are good metaphors for the emerging downtowns that we are seeing in North Pinellas County. These downtowns have lived through some pretty steep declines as downtown areas have been allowed to decay as they have been forgotten in favor of suburban developments. But they are roaring back as we come to appreciate what they have to offer in terms of shopping, dining and living.

Downtowns offer something community-wise that simply can’t be matched. We’re lucky to have these areas re-emerging, and we also are lucky to have had residents, business people and political leaders who have been able to share the vision of reinvigorated downtowns.

By the way, this lamp post is one of many that line Cleveland Street in downtown Clearwater.

Tags: Clearwater, real estate

Post office is choice piece of Clearwater real estate

Clearwater Post Office

With all the talk about the current economic stimulus package, we should note that a very similar effort took place in the 1930s in response to the Great Depression. The Roosevelt Administration gets the credit (or blame) for all of the federal spending that took place back then to try to get the economy moving again, but less well known is that federal stimulus spending took place during the previous Hoover administration, as well.

An example of that was the so-called Elliot bill, which greatly increased the amount of federal spending for local building programs.  Up to that time, much of the federal spending on building construction was focused on buildings constructed inside Washington, DC. The Elliot bill bumped up federal spending for building projects from $315 million to $415 million, and most of that extra  money was aimed at building projects beyond Washington.

One of them turned out to be the new post office building in Clearwater, Florida. In 1931, Clearwater officials received a letter from Washington saying that $150,000 in federal funds had been earmarked for a new Clearwater Post Office.

That was a very big deal at the time. Clearwater’s population had been exploding, and one institution that was really feeling the pinch was the local post office.  The original post office on Cleveland street was really cramped, and when the new Scranton Arcade building was completed the post office was moved into that building. But even that wasn’t adequate — Clearwater was definitely going to need a new post office facility if it was to keep up with the increasing population demands.

So construction got under way right across the street from the Scranton Arcade. A local architect , Theodore Skinner, was hired to design the new building, and a Florida construction company, Walt & Sinclair of Palm Beach, was hired to do the work. The work went swiftly and the new building, made of limestone quarried in the Florida Keys, was dedicated on Oct. 9, 1933.

Then, as now, the federal dollars were meant to stimulate local economic growth. Local architects, designers, builders and materials were specified. The Clearwater Post office is a great exampleof Mediterrean Revival architecture. It was placed on the National Registerof Historic Places in the 1980s.

Tags: architecture, Clearwater, Post Office, real estate

Scranton Arcade was important example of Clearwater real estate

Scranton Arcade

When I posted the last article on Clearwater real estate wall art, I noticed something in the picture that puzzled me a little — a detail in the mural that showed a store front with the words “Scranton Arcade” over the front entranceway. I had never heard of the Scranton Arcade before, so I decided to do a little research.

What I discovered is that the Scranton Arcade building was a very exciting bit of downton Clearwater architecture that was built in the mid-1920s. It covered a whole city block of Clearwater real estate, and it contained everything from Clearwater’s post office (before the current very beautiful Clearwater Post Office was built a few years later) to a bakery to the Clearwater offices of the St. Petersburg TIMES newspaper.

The Clearwater Evening Independent newspaper did a story in 1924 on the construction of the building. It explains quite a bit about the building and the role it was to play in what was then Clearwater’s blossoming downtown:

Clearwater Evening Independent – June 16, 1924

The Scranton Arcade, said to be the largest building of its kind in South Florida, is approaching completion. Blue and buff case tile is now being placed below the large plate glass windows on the Garden Avenue side, and laying of floor tile is to begin this week.

 Construction work on this arcade has been held up, owing to delay in installation of an automatic sprinkler system, with which the entire building is to be furnished, A. M. Perdue, superintendent, said today, but he predicts the arcade will be ready for occupancy within 30 days.
 
The post office is to be located in the extreme southeastern corner of the new building, and everybody is interested in seeing the local postal department in the new quarters, as the present post office, on Cleveland Street, is entirely inadequate for the purpose.

The Scranton Arcade is a beautiful structure, with sidewalls of apricot stucco, ornamented with art stone friezes. It occupies the entire block bounded by Cleveland Street, South Garden Avenue, Park Street and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks.  This is considered one of the finest business locations in Clearwater.

The construction is entirely of hollow tile ands brick, stuccoed throughout, with elaborate ornamental façade and Spanish tile coping finishing the top of the sidewalls. Wide corridors run through the building north and south and east and west and there is a spacious court under a big rotunda in the center.

Clearwater’s newest business building is divided into very attractive small shops, all of which have large plate glass windows, both on the streets and the arcade. The post office being located in the southeast corner, patrons of the post office will be obliged to pass all of the business places in the building. It is stated that these desirable shops and offices have already been leased.

The main feature of the Scranton Arcade, perhaps, is that its erection opens up a new business district on South Garden Avenue, and is but the forerunner of a number of attractive business buildings.

Other stores in the arcade included the Postal Telegraph Company, the post office, Rellop’s Smoke Shop, Frank J. Booth Insurance, a newspaper office, a beauty shop and the Dutch Kitchen restaurant.

I haven’t been able to find out exactly what happened to the Scranton Arcade building, but the modern Atrium office building now stands at the corner of Cleveland and South Garden.  If you know the fate of the Scranton Arcade, please post something here by clicking on “comment.”

Tags: Add new tag, Clearwater, scranton arcade

Clearwater real estate wall art

If you’ve been reading this blog for the past few weeks, you know I have some interest in wall art and murals. I’ve posted an example or two, and I came across some really nice examples in downtown Clearwater when I visited there a few days ago.

I’ll have to do a post on some of the nice work that has been done in revitalizing downtown Clearwater in the past few years. Not all of it has been all that popular — for example, some people object to the curvy new Cleveland Street roadway, and the enormous black globes that have been placed on the median as decorations. If you miss one of the lefty-righty twists in the road, you could end up up with one of those big globes as a new hood ornament.

Still, downtown Clearwater us much more attractive and appealing than it was just a few years back. There’s some nice new condo housing there, and some nice restaurants and coffee shops, as well. Not to mention some fine examples of wall art that really lends some color and character to what was a very tired and rundown area.

I’ve found wall art in downtown Dunedun, and a couple of examples on the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs. Still, though, I think the local wall art capital is downtown Clearwater. I’ll be posting a few more examples in the coming weeks.

Tags: Clearwater, murals, wall art

Downtown Clearwater

Around 25 years ago, the city of Biddeford, Maine decided to try to bring some attention to its old downtown area.

Biddeford was an old mill town, and its brick mill buildings no longer housed the textile companies and other businesses that had depended on the water power that was provided by the adjacant river. In its heyday, enough money flowed through Biddeford to pay for a pretty nice downtown commercial area, with brick office and retail buildings as well as attractive municipal buildings.

Those buildings had once featured very nice architectural details, but many of them had been covered up or removed as the buildings had gone through a series of renovations.

The old Peninsular Telephone Co. building in Clearwater

But those renovations seldom extended up to the upper floors and the rooflines. If you looked up there, you could see some very fancy and attractive brick designs, windows and eaves. The city wanted to draw attention to those high-up fancy old touches and details rather than the decidely unattractive street-level renovations.

So they came up with this slogan: “Look Up, Biddeford!” They used that slogan on the cover of brochures and posters that featured details of Biddeford’s best top-story architectural work.

All of which is a long way of getting around to an old brick building in downtown Clearwater that houses a Dunkin’ Donuts shop. If you walk down Cleveland Street you may only notice the donut shop facade, but if you walk on the other side of the street and happen to look up, you will see a very beautiful three-story brick building with some nice architectural touches not unlike the ones 1,500 miles to the north in Biddeford.

I was in downtown Clearwater late Friday and I spent a little time admiring the building. In the middle of the brick facade above the second-story front windows is a granite square with a single carved word: “Telephone.” That got my curiousity stirred up, so I did some research when I got home.

This Cleveland Street building was built in the early 1920s for the Peninsular Telephone Co., Pinellas County’s first real telephone company which was granted a franchise to operate in Clearwater 1901. The company was actually formed in Bradenton by a couple of brothers who got into the telephone business when they installed a telephone in their grocery store so customers could phone in their food orders.

That idea worked so well that they opened other food stores, all with telephones. Soon, they found that the telephone business had more profit potential than the grocery business. before long, they were operating telephone companies in a number of Florida Counties.

In this particular building, Peninsular Telephone ran a commercial office in the rear of the first floor, while the switchboards and phone operators toiled away on the second floor. A Rexall drug store occupied the front of the first floor.

Later, Peninsular Telephone sold out to General Telephone, which became GTE, which became Verizon.

Later, the 9,000-square-foot building fell into disrepair, as did all of the downtown Clearwater area. At some point, the beautiful windows and brick work were covered with a slick slathering of stucco. For a number of years, the first floor was occupied by a commercial blood bank facility which paid for blood donations, mostly from local homeless people.

Around 2003, the stucco was stripped away and the building was restored. It now is a proud component of downtown Clearwater’s re-emergence.

Tags: Clearwater, downtown, telephone building

Is this the best pizza in Pinellas County?

Monty's Pizza

There’s all kinds of different pizza. There’s thin crust, thick crust, Chicago style, New York style and Sicilian pizza, just to name a few. People are particular about their pizza, and not everyone thinks the same way when it comes to deciding what’s good, and what’s not so good.

All that being said, we like Monty’s Pizza in Clearwater. A lot.

We go there just about every Sunday night, and we always order the same thing: a medium deluxe. At Monty’s, a deluxe pizza has five toppings of your choice. For us, that means pepperoni, sausage, extra cheese, olive oil and mushrooms. (There’s one waitress there who doesn’t think olive oil should be a topping. When she waits on us, we order onions, too.)

Monty’s is owned by a family from Connecticut, according to the story on the back of the menu. They have been turning out pizzas in Pinellas County since the early 80s. The restaurant itself is a bit funky, and that adds to the charm. Also, there’s an old Ford outside in the parking lot painted up to look like a NASCAR racer sponsored by Monty’s. If you drive by, you see the Ford before you see the actual “Monty’s” sign on the building.

Monty’s is in mid-county on Nursery, just west of Belcher. If you come on a Sunday night, we’ll probably see you there.

Tags: Clearwater, pinellas, pizza, restaurant