The First Hundred Years: Clearwater Yacht Club, 1911-2011

in the early 1900s in several ways. In 1900 he built an ice plant on Drew Street and laid a water main from the ice plant to Cleveland Street giving the city its first running water. In 1905, McClung received an electric franchise, which provided the first electricity to the area (Dunn, 1974; Gleason, 1976). In 1902, a pier and pavilion were built at the foot of Cleveland Street. Along with the railroad, this facility (donated to the city in 1912) became a vital link to the outside world. Mail, supplies, and people

Paving in process on South Osceola Avenue (1910). Courtesy of Heritage Village Archives and Library (P2874005).

arrived via sail and later steamboats (Dunn, 1974). With money appropriated by the United States Congress, Clearwater and Boca Ciega Bays were dredged in 1915—thus making an already superb waterfront even more attractive to yachting enthusiasts. Elaborate winter residences (including the home of Lowe Emerson) began to appear along Clearwater Bay (Cadwell, 1977; Dunn, 1974; Gleason, 1976; Sanders, 1983). Dissatisfied with the distance residents had to travel to the Hillsborough County seat in Tampa, the editor of the St. Petersburg Times (W. L. Straub) published a “declaration of independence” calling for the creation of Pinellas County in 1907. His proposal aroused much interest—especially in the southernmost areas of what is now Pinellas County. In May of 1911, just months after CYC’s articles of incorporation were signed in Hillsborough County, Pinellas County was born when Governor A. W. Gilchrist signed the bill passed by the legislature providing for the separation of the two counties. Pinellas officially began operations as a county on January 1, 1912 (Dunn, 1974; Pinellas County Planning Department, 2008). There immediately ensued a hotly contested “war” over the location of the courthouse. In 1912, the City of Clearwater, under the leadership of Mayor C. H. Evans, donated a site (Cadwell, 1977; Dunn, 1974; Gleason, 1976; Sanders, 1983). The controversy over location, however, was not so easily settled. Gleason (1976: 11), citing the Woman’s Club (1917) account, reports that: “The first courthouse was built by volunteer labor while the neighborhood women brought food to the workers. Torches blazed around the rising structure as work went on through the night, and armed guards with shotguns patrolled it constantly because rumors had

Chapter 1: In the Beginning 17