A new Longhorn Steakhouse is planned for the site, where demolition is to take place today.
By MEGAN SCOTT
Published August 6, 2003
PALM HARBOR - The last house on U.S. 19 in North Pinellas was still standing on Tuesday.
It was already boarded up. Vandals had spray-painted graffiti inside. And heavy equipment was moving dirt around. Even the old orange grove was gone.
But today, construction crews plan to demolish the four-bedroom home, built in 1950, to make way for the Riviere Ridge Shopping Center.
"A Longhorn Steakhouse is going right where the house is," said Tom Risk, superintendent for GLR Inc., the general contractor on the project.
Along with the 5,500-square-foot restaurant, the project includes a 40,000-square-foot retail center and a 15,000-square-foot Walgreens, according to plans submitted to the county by the developer, Skilken of Columbus, Ohio. A third parcel will more than likely be a fast food restaurant, said Risk.
The county approved the retail center on July 24. Plans for the other three parcels are still being reviewed.
The house at 35609 U.S. 19 N is the last single-family residence on U.S. 19 in North Pinellas. Citrus grower Lawrence Riviere built the white wooden house with yellow trim. He and his wife, Viola, raised their three children, Fleda, Tuelah and Larry, there.
Orange groves brought the family to North Pinellas. Viola, who is from Madison County, came to visit an aunt and met her future husband. He built a home with indoor plumbing and a basement where the grandchildren would play.
"We had all our reunions there and Christmas and Thanksgiving," said her son, Larry Riviere, 61. "I spent a lot of time there. My sisters did also."
Lawrence Riviere died in 1972. Viola Riviere stayed in the house. She watched the two-lane road turn into a six-lane highway with shopping centers and strip malls. It didn't faze her. She went on tending her peas, cabbage, okra and mustard greens as motorists passed her by.
"Oh, I was raised on a farm," she said in a 1988 interview. "I love to see stuff grow. You take that away from me, I'd be lost."
She even got used to the noise from U.S. 19.
"If you go somewhere where they don't have traffic, it feels so quiet," she said. "It just grows on you."
The Sembler Co. bought the property in 1986. The Albertsons grocery store was built on some of it. The deal allowed her to live on the 9 acres around her house until she moved or died.
Viola Riviere died in 2001 at the age of 94. By that time the house was empty, sandwiched between the Albertsons supermarket and the Scan Design Furniture Store.
She had been in an assisted living facility but would often ask her children to bring her to the house for a few hours. She would weed and tend the garden.
"It was home to her," said Larry Riviere.
But unlike his mother, Larry Riviere didn't like to go back and visit his childhood home. He boarded up the windows, but vandals would always find a way in.
"I got where I hated to go down there because of the traffic," he said. "I don't imagine I'll be making any more trips down there."
