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Letter to the editor

Statues' years of mystery solved

The panthers found in a driveway are likely ones from St. Petersburg early days.

By ABHI RAGHUNATHAN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 11, 2007

St. Petersburg Police recently found two panthers stolen from Snell Isle decades ago. They are stored at the St. Petersburg Police Department. One statue is whole, the other damaged at its base.
	[Scott Keeler | Times]

ST. PETERSBURG - After riding a train across Switzerland and driving through Norway, C. Perry Snell decided to bring a pinch of glamour to his latest project.

"It is the memory of these beautiful scenes that encourages one to lend some romantic touch to our local scene," Snell wrote in 1927. "At Snell Isle, I am endeavouring to lend a foreign note to match the warmth and balm of our sunshine."

Part of Snell's plan involved installing dozens of large, concrete statues of animals such as lions, tigers and panthers to the subdivision that bears his name.

Alas, every paradise since the Garden of Eden has had its vandals. And over the years, interlopers have defaced, damaged or simply carried away some of Snell's imports.

But residents of Snell Isle recently got a surprise. A real estate agent showing homes spotted two Snell Isle panther statues in an unlikely place. They were guarding the driveway of a home in the 3900 block of 51st Avenue N, a lot owned for decades by a janitor at Northeast High School and his wife.

What were the panthers doing there? The answer lies in the memories of the janitor's wife, and a rivalry between two local high schools more than half a century ago.

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While developing the posh neighborhood of Snell Isle in the 1920s, Snell wanted it to be his masterpiece -- "the Pearl of the Pinellas." He once wrote that he wanted the neighborhood "to suggest unimagined splendors and unwonted joys."

So he put up statues and sculptures, including the concrete statues of jungle animals at street intersections. He imported some from Europe and had others manufactured in the country, and more statues were added over the years. Today, the neighborhood is filled with statues of lions, panthers, tigers and griffins.

The attacks started coming soon after the statues were installed. Kids and thieves hauled them away; even the city damaged some statues while installing new sewer lines. By 1980, the neighborhood had been stripped of nearly all its Snell originals.

The statues made especially ripe pickings for high school students. One rash of thefts reportedly occurred in the 1950s, after Northeast High opened in 1954 and started a rivalry with St. Petersburg High.

One day that year, someone dumped a bunch of debris in front of lockers at Northeast High after a football game. The principal told the janitor, Kenneth Sargent, to get rid of the stuff.

Kenneth Sargent is dead now. But his wife, Millie, now 86, says she still remembers the tale her husband told her:

The principal called Snell Isle residents to tell them that kids had taken two panther statues. But Snell Isle residents told the principal the statues were being replaced and they didn't want them back.

So Kenneth Sargent brought the statues home and put them up in the driveway, where they stayed for the next 53 years.

"They were a conversation piece with a lot of people," Millie Sargent said.

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Sargent sold the home several years ago and left the statues behind.

After a real estate agent saw them two weeks ago, police began investigating at the request of Bill Dudley, 63, president of the Snell Isle Property Owners Association.

Dudley said he thinks the two panther statues, which are worn and chipped, were among the original batch installed by Snell himself. That would make them about 70 years old.

Dudley said it was unclear if the statues would be returned to Snell Isle. If they had been given away to someone, he said, then they should stay in the driveway where the were found. Police are looking into the issue.

"We want to do what's right," Dudley said. "We don't want to take something that doesn't belong to us."

For now, as police investigate, the statues sit in an evidence room at the department headquarters at 1300 First Avenue N. They have seen better days. The words "Snell Isle" are barely legible on the base of one panther statue. The other panther statue has fallen from its pedestal.

Shawn Patrick Maxon, 44, the real estate investor who bought the Sargent home several years ago, said he plans to keep the statues. He said he didn't know about the history behind the statues until the police came to his property and began investigating.

Maxon said he plans to tear down the Sargent home and build two new ones. He said he'd like to put the statues up again outside the homes. If he gets his wish, two of Snell's original panthers may guard a new real estate development.

"We're going to fix them up," Maxon said. "I'd like them back."

Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. Abhi Raghunathan can be reached at araghunathan@sptimes.com or 727 893-8472.

[Last modified August 10, 2007, 23:25:25]