As the midcentury motels of Treasure Island age, owners and others debate whether to repair or raze them.
By TOM ZUCCO
Published February 9, 2004
[Times photo: Jamie Francis]
The Surf Motel on Treasure Island will close in April and be torn down in May to make room for a 30-unit hotel-condo. Built in 1956, The Surf became an anchor motel of what became known as the Golden Mile. Many think the midcentury motel should be preserved as a symbol of Florida history.
Hallmarks of '50s beach motels
Angles:
Midcentury-era architecture often is captured dramatically in mimimalist design, with stark angles and lines, such as at The Surf motel.
Signs:
Signs are another obvious clue to a motel's origin, for those from the midcentury era are never subtle, often with spectacular neon lettering, such as at The Thunderbird
Openness: Most midcentury-era motels feature wide, air courtyards facing the gulf, including this one at The Surf, to create a friendly sense of openness.
TREASURE ISLAND - The whole thing started as a hoax. At least, that's what some of the old-timers say.
In 1918, a real estate investor who was trying to drum up business hired a group of men to "discover" a treasure chest that had been buried on the gulf beaches. After the chest was put on display at a local bank, people by the hundreds found their way to the beach.
And so Treasure Island was born.
But the city didn't start to assume its true identity, and separate itself from the other beach towns, until about 30 years later - when the motels were discovered.
Built from the late 1940s through the 1960s, they were two-story concrete and stucco buildings with flamboyant neon signs, airy courtyards, sloping roofs and entranceways, and a feel that was right out of a Martin and Lewis movie.
Look at them today, and the buildings still scream '50s architecture. And their names still evoke images of a beachside escape in simpler times: The Jolly Roger, The Satellite, The Sands, The Algiers, The Fargo, The Surf and The Thunderbird.
Most of those motels still line Gulf Boulevard between St. Pete Beach and Madeira Beach and still attract guests from Canada, the Midwest and the Northeast looking for a reasonably priced place to escape the winter for a few weeks.
But there are powerful forces of change at work.
Property taxes have increased, and property values have soared. Motels that sold in the '60s for $30,000 are now worth millions. And the old motels are getting more expensive to maintain. A new coat of paint won't solve the problem anymore.
Preservationists contend the buildings have a value far beyond property appraisers' numbers. The motels are a key part of Florida history, and nothing new can come close to replacing their charm. And look what happened in Miami's South Beach, they say, where old hotels and motels were made new again, and the area was reborn.
On the other side are the developers, who, despite a five-story limit on new construction in Treasure Island, have discovered something new to dangle in front of motel owners: the hotel-condo.
That's what will replace The Surf.
The white and mustard yellow building lounges between a municipal beach and a 15-story condo. Built by Herbert Dowling in 1956, The Surf became an anchor motel of what became known as the Golden Mile. It was among the first motels on the beach to have central air-conditioning.
But it's that air-conditioning system that has become a maintenance nightmare. For that and other reasons, the Dowling family recently sold the 32-unit property. It will close in April and be torn down in May. In its place, a 30-unit hotel-condo is proposed. Each unit would cost about $400,000, and owners could rent their condos much like a hotel rents rooms.
There are several such buildings already in Treasure Island.
But none of them has replaced a building quite like The Surf, a place whose classic midcentury design has been featured in Architectural Digest, but whose efficiencies rent for $66.60 a night.
On a recent weekday afternoon, The Surf's parking lot was filled with vans and sport utility vehicles from Nova Scotia, Michigan, Ontario and New York.
For a few precious weeks every year for almost 40 years, Marcy Rotty has been coming here.
Even after her husband, Gordon, died in 1987, she made the trip from Farmington, Minn. All of her 12 children and most of her 25 grandchildren have stayed at The Surf.
"It's the friendships and the duct tape that hold it together," she said as she sat by the pool with her daughter and son-in-law. "The layout here is perfect. And this place is like an old friend."
Rotty, 71, said she'll stay at The Sands when she comes back next spring.
"Most of the other people here have made arrangements for there. Or The Sea Chest or The Algiers," she said.
"You see, the nice thing about places like this is that everybody can visit with everybody else. I hope it'll be like that next year."
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The preservationists and those who want Treasure Island to remain much like it is are a vocal lot. There is a Save Treasure Island Web site, www.recentpast.org/groups/treasure/index.html and no shortage of people who rush to the defense of the older buildings.
"I knew the gulf beaches back in the day," Tampa architect Ken Garcia said. "And they ain't what they used to be.
"There are some really bad things being built on the beaches, and I share a collective guilt as an architect that my peers are producing this kind of visual garbage. The quality of architecture is sad."
Construction now has to conform to new building codes and federal regulations, he said.
"But an architect still has the responsibility to design something responsive to history, and that enhances the environment instead of taking it backward," Garcia said. "How many times do you hear people say, "I really love how Madeira Beach feels?"'
But people say that about South Beach because the original fabric was retained amid redevelopment, he said.
Other critics like Garcia cite a sociological factor.
"These motels tell a person what a place was like during a certain period of time in Florida," said Kathleen Kauffman, executive director of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation. "And they convey that period so much more than any book or words ever could."
Kauffman said a recent study by the University of Florida College of Law, Rutgers University and several other groups found that historic preservation creates jobs and makes a substantial contribution to tax rolls.
"The most telling number out of the study," Kauffman said, "is the total impact historic preservation has in Florida. It's $4.2-billion a year, based on jobs and income and state and local taxes.
"Nobody comes to visit a strip mall or because there is a drug store on every corner. So, for us, this is an education process. If people could just look past their single properties and look at the whole picture."
Heidi Horak, a Sunset Beach lawyer who was a leader in the effort to put height restrictions on new buildings in Treasure Island, thinks high renovation costs might not be the only reason old motels fall to the wrecking ball.
"They'll tell you it needs to be done," Horak said. "That the buildings are getting old. But I think it's money. And when these buildings are gone, they're gone forever. There will be no uniqueness to the beach anymore. It'll be just like any other beach with condos and chain hotels and restaurants. All Bennigan's and Best Westerns. Why would you come?"
* * *
The Thunderbird sign: It's often the first thing visitors see when they reach the city, and many people think the old bird is one of the real treasures of Treasure Island. The 40-foot-high red and green neon sign has been a landmark since it was erected in 1957.
Like many motel owners, David King, whose family has owned the resort since 1970, is aware of both sides of the issue. He also is aware of the economic tug of war an owner can face.
"I love '50s-style architecture," King said. "But if the accommodations are antiquated, they won't fit the demands of today's consumer."
King said the 64-room Thunderbird has undergone renovations, and there are no plans to sell it. But with increasingly high repair bills and other costs, he understands why other owners might have no other choice.
Richard Dowling was one of them. A co-owner of The Surf, Dowling said the decision to sell was based on the condition of the building.
"It was a question of age," he said. "We were looking at a substantial cost to renovate it. We would've had to gut the building and start over. It was a very hard and a very sad decision."
The Dowling family also owns The Sands, built in 1947 as the first concrete building on Treasure Island. Although The Sands is older than The Surf, The Sands is in better condition.
"And we very much look forward to a full restoration of The Sands," he said. "We've always been motel operators. Not developers. We'll be here."
The key, Treasure Island Mayor Mary Maloof said, is balance.
"Too much work had to be done on The Surf," Maloof said. "It was not saveable. But there are places where we could keep the facades and do the work on the inside.
"We don't want old, run-down properties, but we don't want everybody tearing down the old buildings and throwing up neo-Mediterranean style buildings that would spoil the feel of the town."
Perhaps few people know the feel of Treasure Island, a town of about 7,500 full-time residents, as well as Julian Fant. He was mayor from 1965 to 1975 and spent 25 years on the City Commission.
"The motels that were here are gradually disappearing, especially in the last five years," he said. "It's inevitable. Folks nowadays expect a more modern style, more modern accommodations. We have the most beautiful beaches, but we have to have modern accommodations to attract the tourists.
"Do I miss some of the old motels? Sure I do. But it's a question of economics."
Angles:
Signs:
Openness: