Martin Shores subdivision went no further than paper
Nearly 50 years ago the city proposed a waterfront community for black residents, but controversy killed the plan.
By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL
Published September 17, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - In 1955, a waterfront neighborhood planned for black residents received initial city approvals but ultimately withered in the face of white protest.
"It was a real hot potato," developer James Stephenson said of the community that would have raised the standard of living for St. Petersburg's African-Americans.
Martin Shores was to have a school, churches, stores and 1,000 homes. Plotted where Maximo Moorings is today, the boundaries were 46th and 54th avenues S and 34th Street and Boca Ciega Bay. A park and the beach would provide recreation; the city would assist in the development's creation.
"It was supposed to be an upscale community," resident Paul Barco said.
In 1955, Mayor Samuel E. Johnson had commissioned the Interracial Advisory Committee to study black community congestion.
Blacks represented 11.5 percent of the city's estimated 134,000 residents, yet lived on roughly 800 of the city's 33,500 acres.
"We had been compressed to such a point" in Methodist Town and Gas Plant Shanty, said Barco, 86.
The committee turned to developer and future state senator, Richard J. Deeb. The Florida native paid Maximo Point Associates Inc. $835,000 for 360 acres.
"I look on this as the greatest opportunity a developer could have to improve Negro living standards and racial relations," said Deeb, who released his plan March 17, 1955.
Deeb's plan involved about 1,000 lots for single-family homes and four blocks of apartments. A motel, a school and a health clinic would join two churches and a shopping center.
"I remember seeing the diagram," said former educator Emanuel Stewart, 85, then a committee member. "It was a very spacious layout, right on the waterfront."
The city's Planning Board and Federal Housing Association endorsed the site plan. "An excellent development for the city of St. Petersburg," Mayor Johnson said.
The City Council approved the zoning application on first reading. The local newspapers reported the project's forward movement.
By the council's second hearing, the opposition stepped up.
"White people started to protest," Stewart said. "They said things like, "What will tourists coming off the (Skyway) bridge think if they see that?' "
Other opponents said the development would yield diminutive tax returns, unleash an avalanche of low-cost housing and devalue surrounding property. Besides, they said, blacks couldn't afford the proposed $5,000 waterfront lots.
Walter P. Fuller, the property's broker, disagreed in a published letter: "Beyond doubt, Martin Shores will sell out in rapid and successful fashion. The Negroes of this city are victims of a cruel economic trap."
Barco said "whites that owned land in black communities then didn't want blacks to move."
The opposition gained more momentum when secret meetings between Deeb and City Manager Ross Windom surfaced. "I can't condone any official (Mayor Johnson) who appoints members of a board who work in secrecy," mayoral candidate Ray Salinas said.
By April, 1,548 residents had signed petitions declaring their opposition for zoning reasons - not racism.
"Walter Fuller was for it, and he was on the zoning committee," said Stephenson, 76, a council member from 1967 to 1971. "Martin Shores was designed . . . to attract black retirees from the North."
Supporters filed their own petitions. "You must fight for it . . . in a gentlemanly manner," Deeb advised. "Any type of disturbance can kill this project."
There was no violence, but Deeb did receive a threatening phone call. "If you don't lay off the project . . . someday you and your family are going to step outside and get it," the voice said.
Said Charlie Kaniss, 86, then the city's vice mayor: "Discussion became very heated," forcing the council to shelve Martin Shores.
"It fell completely apart within a year's time," said George Mitchell, 77, a Deeb partner not involved with Martin Shores.
On Aug. 10, 1958, the press reported that the land would become a white development (Maximo Moorings).
"We looked at it socially," Barco said. "The white owners looked at it economically."
