The Hotel Fort Gatlin, Orlando, Florida

postmarked May 19, 1946, Saint Petersburg, Fla.

Having a nice trip.  Should like to hear from you.  

B. Napier

Box 5141

New Orleans, 15

La, U.S.A.

Mrs.  Dorris Bremner

Vernon Street

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Canada

The Hotel Fort Gatlin was a place where guests could enjoy the famous "golden fried chicken" dinner as well as a comfortable stay in the mid-century City Beautiful.  Our writer must have been so full that he/she forgot to write to Mrs. Bremner until arriving in St. Petersburg, which before I-4 was a half day trip.  The building along Orange Avenue was bought and demolished in 1965 by the Orlando Sentinel who was expanding their operations.  

Doris Bremner was probably born in 1910, and may have been related to the family owned Bremner's Plumbing and Heating of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  The town of about 400,000 was amalgamated into a regional government in 1995.  

"Sausage Tree" (Kigella Pinetta), Florida

Sausage Tree (Kigellia Pinatta) Florida

Saint Petersburg, Fla

April 13, 1943

We saw this strange tree 4 years ago in Miami.  Can’t do much driving this year on account scarcity of gasoline.  If I could see my friend in Hyde Park, bet you I could have all I want.  We will be seeing you before long.  Weather like summer here and hate to leave it. 

George Schryver

Mr. C Kisselbrach

Pine Plains, N.Y.


As I sit outside 10 days and 59 years from the date on this card, I am reminded that it is very much like summer already, although not quite as oppressive as July and August can be here in Florida.

I discussed the Kigellia Pinatta a little yesterday, and found a more recent study using the bark extract as an anticonvulsant.  I should also add that this species is not quite invasive, as it only thrives in south Florida, much like its native habitat of tropical Africa, so its fairly scarce when considering Florida as a whole.

Gasoline was scarce during World War Two, and scarce enough that Mr. Schryver decided against taking the near 20 mile trip across the Gandy Bridge to his friend in Hyde Park, Tampa.  Tampa has the largest port facility in Florida, especially when it concerns bulk freight such as fertilizer and gasoline, so maybe George's friend worked for the harbormaster.  

Pine Plains, NY is a town of about 2,500 people.  The surname Kisselbrach appears in some archived papers in a 1930 story about the widow of George Kisselbrach getting married at age 78 to an 83 year old widower and a 1970 story about Lulu Kisselbrach's trip to Europe.

Moonlight Over Lower Tampa Bay Showing Main and Channel Bridge of Sunshine Skyway

Touring the Sunshine Skyway is like going to Sea in your Automobile.  Fifteen miles of sun, sea, and sky and stops on the wide causeways are permitted to fish and enjoy the warm surf.  The Sunshine Skyway is reached from the Norht by U.S. 19, from the South by U.S. 41 and is part of the new West Florida Coast Speedway

Saint Petersburg, Fla., March 1, 1960

2-29-60

Sunshine, oranges, grapefruit & 78 degrees warm.  This is hard to beat.  Hope the snow melts a bit by the end of week.

Robert Cook

Mrs. Hazel Hawley

North Street

Morenci, Mich.

Morenci, Michigan is a small town of about 2,400 people situated in the middle of Michigan's shared border with Ohio.   The town was founded in 1833, and the residents there seem intent on preserving a "small town" way of life.  Unfortunately, there is no Hazel Hawley mentioned in that small town way of life for the past 100 years.  The Oak Grove Cemetery has three members of the Hawley family interred, with the most recent burial happening in 1906.  


"Going to sea in your automobile" is a very poor choice of words, considering what would happen to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge 20 years after this postcard was sent.

Central Avenue from the Air. Looking West from Yacht Club and Basin, St. Petersburg, Fla

January 29, 1957

Dear Son and family,

Your 20 below figures gave us the chills.  Too bad we can’t all be down here in the 80 every day.  I am having therapy treatments now from a sweet little woman.  She expects to cure me.  Very good looking but married. 

Best wishes,

Dad

Albert W. Smith

Dixfield, Maine

Box 52

St. Petersburg has long been the summer destination for many tourists and retirees looking to escape the harsh winters of the Northern United States.  Founded in 1876 and named after St. Petersburg, Russia, the population nearly doubled from 1950 to 1960, during which time Mr. Albert Smith's Dad went to seek “therapy treatments from a sweet little woman.”

Dixfield, Maine is a small community that touts the fact that it is the only place in the world named “Dixfield.”  The town was founded in 1789, and originally called Holmantown after the founder, Colonel Jonathan Holman, and renamed Dixfield in 1803, after an empty promise from a Dr. Elijah Dix to build a library.  The library didn't materialize until 1935, but left a deep commitment to local history by the residents, who formed an historical society and museum.

There is a marriage record for an Albert W. Smith to Ada Berry or Murch in Dixville, Maine in 1924, 28 years before this postcard was sent.  There's a marriage record for Alan Todd Smith to Jeanette Elizabeth Turner in 1994 that could be a direct descendant.  Perhaps Alan Smith or the Dixfield Historical Society can shed some light on Albert's Dad's treatments or the "sweet little woman" who was very "good looking but married."  Did Dad wish to find romance in Florida after being divorced or widowed?  Was he playing matchmaker to his already married son?  And what kind of therapy treatments were available in St. Petersburg that beckoned him down from chilly Maine?

St. Petersburg, Florida (Sunken Gardens)

February 16, 1971

228 ½ 12 Ave No.

St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Hi Ardeele.  Here we are in the sunny south and some days not so sunny.  On the whole it has been very nice.  Guess you have had a bad winter.

Love Pauline + Willie(Nellie?)

Mrs. Robert (McCombies?)

75 Manor Drive

Portsmouth New Hamp

03801 


Sunken Gardens was built by a plumber.  In 1903, George Turner drained a lake that was on his property and set clay tiles around the muck that would provide the rich soil for his garden.  Through three generations and the purchase of a former Coca-Cola bottling plant, Sunken Gardens thrived as the tourist destination it is today.  Facing financial hard times, the city of St. Petersburg bought the property in 1999, restoring it to its former splendor.  Growing up in Tampa, I remember many family and field trips to this place, and how boring it was without the thrill rides and shows I had come to expect as a Florida boy living near Busch Gardens and Adventure Island in Tampa.  


Portsmouth, New Hampshire is a very old city, founded in 1653.  It's the birthplace of John Paul Jones, the naval hero and Ronnie James Dio, the rock hero.  The small house still stands at 75 Manor Drive, but the Rockingham County website does not seem to support property searches by address.  There are a few obituaries, and even a sex offender with variations on Robert McCombie (McCombies?), but neither birthrates nor surviving relatives match with anything on this postcard.


This postcard is typical of many postcards from Florida, with the sender really rubbing in the fact that it's sunny and warm with no snow.  I admit I do the same thing every winter to my brother in Seattle by phone.  (Oh, you had an ICE storm!  Wow!  I went to the beach!)  But old Pauline and Willie really put an passive-aggressive spin on things, with the right scintilla of concern- "guess you had a bad winter."  

Sunshine Pleasure Club, St. Petersburg, Florida

March 2, 1956

Hello, All-

We are having a good rest on a wonderful vacation.  The weather is very warm and all our summer plans are in bloom.  They built four thousand houses here last year and are still going strong. 

J. V. (?)

Haverhill Lumber & Supply Co.

22 Phoenix Row

Haverhill, Mass.


Sunshine Pleasure Club is my favorite band from the 1980's.

Haverhill, Massachusetts is one of the oldest communities in the state, settled in 1640, and incorporated in 1870.  It became a manufacturing center, specializing in shoes and hats until the Great Depression.  Its rich history includes the first retail establishment of Rowland Macy, the first Macy's Parade, and Haverhill High School, which inspired Bob Montana's Archie Comics.

The Sunshine Pleasure Club was my favorite 1970's kids show.

The Haverhill Lumber and Supply Company is gone, replaced by an assisted living facility.   In addition, the sender has an undecipherable signature.  It is very conceivable that the sender worked at the lumber company when he notes the number of houses built in St. Petersburg.  Perhaps the Haverhill Lumber and Supply Company could have benefitted from a southern migration- the population of St. Petersburg doubled from 1950 to 1960.

The real Sunshine Pleasure Club started in Williams Park in St. Petersburg sometime before 1917.  Google has an archive of the St. Petersburg Times, and apparently shuffleboard, horseshoe pitching and the athletic prowess of the Sunshine Pleasure Club were hot topics for decades.

Home Surrounded by Tropical Foliage and Hedge of Flame Vine St. Petersburg, Fla.

January 12, 1959

Hi Come on down.  No snow here. 

Bob Martino

640 8^th Ave. South

St. Petersburg, Fla.

Mr. & Mrs. Tom Fairbanks

Rear 496 Main St.

Groveland, Mass


A short quick note from our good friend Bob Martino, one month prior to the previous message he sent to the Fairbanks'.  I'm trying to coin a neologism for the ubiquitous Florida weather contrast seen on most postcards- maybe "sunboasting."  This is the first of several postcards addressed to the Fairbanks family in Groveland, MA that came in the last lot of postcards I purchased.  Most antique stores get their inventory from either auctions or buying estates.  Postcards and greeting cards get saved in a stack over the years, and generally get discovered when the antique dealer finds them in that sweet roll-top desk or Victorian hutch.  They get added to the inventory, and generally put into a section of the store or booth.  If there's enough inventory, a dealer may organize the cards by location and theme, mixing in the used and unused cards.  This process is why the frequency of the same family name s fairly commonplace, but it still holds excitement and provides a more secure anchor to discover the identities of the recipients.

Thankfully, our friend Bob was kind enough to provide his return address on this card.  Unfortunately, Bob's house was swallowed up by the continuing expansion of Bayfront Medical Center and All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.  There is a drywall company owned by a Bob Martino in St. Petersburg, but their website is under construction and very generalized.

The population of the town of Groveland was 3,297 in 1960, over half of what it is today.  Groveland is located in Essex County, made famous by the oddly shaped state legislative district drawn for Eldridge Gerry.  A cartoon of "the Gerry-mander" was published in 1812, and our political system had a new word that would shape our government every ten years.  The tidy white house at 496 Main St. still exists, as was listed in the Essex County deeds as being sold to a Claude Ritter in 1975.  Fairbanks seems to be a prominent surname in Groveland, maybe they were members of the Garden Club or descendants of the same Fairbanks family that owns the oldest timber house in America.

Among the Orange Groves in Florida

St. Petersburg, FL
February 3, 1959

Greetings from Florida.

Come on down where it is cold and wet.

Bob Martino

Mr. & Mrs. Thom. Fairbanks

Rear 496 Main St.

Groveland, Mass.


Thanks, Bob.


Mr. Martino is either a poor salesman, or close enough to his friends, the Fairbanks', that he can lay on the sarcasm.  There's more from Bob on another card, as well as the Fairbanks, so enjoy this pastoral scene from the not-too-distant past.


The first citrus trees in Florida were planted and cultivated by members of Christopher Columbus' crew, and continued under the Spanish flag as the first settlements in Florida began.  Even through freezes and disease, Florida continues to be a major producer of citrus, even as old orange groves are cleared to make way for suburban development.

I'm still waiting to hear back from the Groveland Historical Society, but check out this history from one of the Parker descendants detailing a church pageant from 1950.

Maas Bros. Department Store, St. Petersburg, Florida

Saint Petersburg, Florida

April 30, 1958

Hello, Greetings

It is sunny here.

Will go swimming today.  Hope to see you soon.

Love,

Hazel & Boyd

Edith Erickson

1024 West 103 Pl

Chicago, Ill.

Maas Brothers Department Store was founded in Tampa in the late 1880's and became one of Florida's more successful retail outlets.  Their first branch store was opened in 1948 in this building in downtown St. Petersburg, until closing its doors in 1991.  Until 2005, it was the home of the Florida International Museum until the building was demolished for the new Florida Progress Tower.  But in 1958, that was the place for Hazel and Boyd to look fashionable for that swim.

Chicago is home to thousands of Ericksons, but this obituary lists a 98 year old Edith who passed away last year, making her 45 at the time of this postcard.  The Fernwood home, built in 1910 is still standing, but the Cook County Assessor's Office does not list ownership data.  If the obituary is the correct Edith Erickson, she lists many survivors that may know who Hazel and Boyd were.