The St. Petersburg Pier, simply called The Pier by locals, is a landmark and major tourist destination in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...

. Some of the activities and sights it encompasses include fishing, boat rentals, weekly festivals, and the Pier Aquarium. Shopping, dining and nightlife are other amenities.

Besides the attractions it is known for its five-story inverted pyramid shape overlooking Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay

Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...

. The aquarium is located on the second floor, with a branch of Ybor City's famed Columbia Restauranton the fourth floor and Cha Cha Coconuts Tropical Bar and Grill on the fifth floor. The first floor includes a Concierge Center, specialty shops and galleries, Waterside Grill & Bar, and the Dockside Eatery food court with burgers, pizza, ice cream and Chinese. Local bands are featured in Courtyard by the Bay every Sunday afternoon.

On August 18, 2010, after a workshop lasting two hours, the St. Petersburg City Council accepted Mayor Bill Foster's recommendation to demolish the current Pier building in a straw-poll vote, 5-3; what would replace it was not clear. The binding vote, 7–1, was taken at an August 26 meeting.

History

The Pier's origins date back to 1889, when the Orange Belt Railway constructed the Railroad Pier on Tampa Bay as a railway-accessible sightseeing and recreational resort for locals and tourists. This was done three years before St. Petersburg’s incorporation as a city in 1892. The Railroad Pier's immediate success led to its replacement in 1906 with the Electric Pier, which extended 3,000 feet into the bay and awed visitors and spectators with its highly dramatic night lighting.

The Electric Pier, in turn, was replaced in 1914 by the Municipal Pier, which was so heavily damaged by the Hurricane of 1921 that the city of St. Petersburg appropriated a $1 million bond for a new structure. This was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day in 1926 as the Million Dollar Pier, a Mediterranean-style casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

 that included an observation deck, an open-air ballroom, and a spacious interior atrium for card games and community events. The building's entrance portico was later enclosed as WSUN-TV

WSUN-TV

WSUN-TV was a television station in St. Petersburg, Florida from 1953 to 1970 and was the first TV station in the Tampa/St. Petersburg television market.-Early history:...

’s studios, from which "Captain Mac" broadcast his children’s show in the 1950s.

By 1967, the Million Dollar Pier was so decrepit it was demolished, and its site was vacant for many years until the current structure was built in 1973. It was designed by William B. Harvard Sr., founder of Harvard Jolly Architecture of St. Petersburg, with a tubular steel framework to create large windows for full panoramic views of Tampa Bay, and an inverted pyramid form for a larger top floor and observation deck.

On March 20, 1976, a laser sculpture by Rockne Krebs entitled Starboard Home on the Range, Part VI was dedicated. The sculpture was a green laser beam that emanated from the Pier towards downtown St. Petersburg and was reflected back to the Pier several times with mirrors, finally reflected out to Tampa bay. Unfortunately technical problems with cooling the laser engine caused it to be inoperative much of the time and it was eventually shut down permanently.

Popular culture

A significant amount of footage was filmed in and around the Pier for the second and third season of the mid-90s television series seaQuest DSV

SeaQuest DSV

seaQuest DSV is an American science fiction television series created by Rockne S. O'Bannon. It originally aired on NBC between 1993 and 1996. In its final season, it was renamed seaQuest 2032. Set in "the near future", seaQuest mixes high drama with realistic scientific fiction...

.

The Pier was shown prominently on the cover of local zombie anthology, Zombie St. Pete. This is a short story collection featuring fictional zombie attacks in the St. Petersburg city. The Pier also held the Zombie St. Pete book release party on February 27, 2010.

Shark Attack-Dorothy MacLatchie, 18. June 17, 1922 Unconfirmed shark. Killed by a "monster fish" while floating next to the Municipal Pier, St. Petersburg, Florida.

External links

• Website opposing the Pier's demolition
• Official website
• http://goflorida.about.com/od/saintpetersburg/a/stpete_pier.htm
• http://goflorida.about.com/od/saintpetersburg/ss/stpete_downtown_7.htm