The Vinoy Renaissance

Your guide to the history of the Vinoy Hotel as the years rolled steadily along.

Located in the heart of St. Petersburg, Florida, this 114-acre landmark resort is within easy reach of theaters, shopping, museums,
art galleries, and nightlife. | We stayed here for the weekend of my Lakewood High School 20 year reunion.

Vinoy Timeline

1840

• The first coastal survey team mapped the area. One of the Frenchmen was hired as a guide and he is said to have told them about Passe aux Grillard, "Pass where men grilled something",   known as Pass-a-Grille.

1854

• William Paul plants the first 50 seedlings in the fall, for the first orange grove on the Pinellas peninsula. The same site of what will eventually be the Vinoy Park Hotel. Area is called Paul’s Landing: See brief history.
See 'Paul’s Landing at the Vinoy combines upscale charm, family-friendly vibe, picturesque setting' story

1880’s

• In the late 1880’s, Abel Miranda buys the site for the Vinoy’s bayside property for $35.

1888

• Peter Demens, a Russian immigrant, named our city for his hometown, St. Petersburg and put it on the map when he built the Orange Belt Railway.

1911

• F. A. Davis, the man who introduced electricity to St. Pete, brought trolleys to the city which included a route that traveled over what we all know as Thrill Hill.

1921

• Major hurricane sweeps Pinellas peninsula with winds of 100 mph and a storm tide six feet above normal. Major damage occurs on barrier beaches.

1924

• Soreno Hotel opens on January 1.  • Suwannee Hotel opens January 4.  • Coliseum ballroom opens.  • Gandy bridge opens on November 20 at a cost of $3-million.

1925

• James Earl "Doc" Webb arrives in St. Petersburg to begin the discount retail empire later to be known as Webb’s City.  • Scopes "Monkey Trial" makes headlines as a schoolteacher is tried for teaching evolution.  • Popular songs include Yes, Sir, That’s My Baby! and Sweet Georgia Brown.  • The 375-room Vinoy Park Hotel, built by Aymer Vinoy Laughner at a cost of $3.5-million, opens December 31.
See 'The Vinoy Legacy' (more history I) story

1926

• Hotel Rolyat (now Stetson College of Law) opens January 1.  • Million dollar Pier opens on St. Petersburg waterfront.  • It’s been one year since Webb was offered a partnership in a small drugstore in St. Pete. He bought out his partner and renamed the store "Webb’s Cut Rate Drug Store."  • The Florida theatre on First Avenue S. opens on September 10.

1928

• Don CeSar Hotel opens on St. Petersburg Beach.

1929

• Stock market crash; beginning of Great Depression.

1932

• Construction begins on Bay Pines Veterans’ Administration Center and Hospital (now called VA Medical Center at Bay Pines).

1936

• The Tides Hotel and Bath Club opened on New Year’s Eve.

1939

• Construction of St. Petersburg City Hall is completed.

1941

• Lake Maggiore Park was created on land bought by the city in a transaction initiated by Mayor R. J. McCutcheon Jr.  • Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, December 7.

1942

• U.S. Army Air Corps moves into Vinoy for basic training.

1945

• World War II ends May 8 in Europe; ends August 14 in the Pacific after atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  • Vinoy Park Hotel reopens, is sold for $700,000 to Alsonett hotel chain. Charles Alberding sells six-month option to purchase the hotel for $5-million to R.W. Reynolds Co. and also bought the Tides Hotel and Bath Club

1947

• Al Lang Stadium opens.  • Construction of the Nature Trail began with $125,000 city funds. It was Boyd Hill who supervised the design, growth and planting of the park.

1953

• The area’s first television station goes on the air at The Pier on May 31: WSUN - UHF Channel 38.

1954

• Construction completed on the original Sunshine Skyway bridge (later converted to be the northbound span). It was opened on September 6 (Labor Day) after a grand opening ceremony and then a motorcade of 500 cars paraded across the Skyway for the first time. A dozen planes and two helicopters flew over the triumphant inaugural drive. After the motorcade, the bridge was opened to the public and tolls were suspended until 11 p.m. Toll operators counted 15,086 cars on that first day (more than 50,000 people).

1956

• Elvis Presley performs at the Florida theatre on First Avenue S.

1958

• St. Petersburg is chosen as the site for a Presbyterian college, now known as Eckerd College.

1960

• Howard Frankland Bridge opens at a cost of $6.5-million.

1961

• Aymer Vinoy Laughner, founder of the Vinoy, dies in April.

1963

• Fort DeSoto Park opens.

1965

• Bayfront Center was built at a cost of $5-million and officially dedicated on May 6.
Comedian Jonathan Winters emceed a glitzy gala, co-starring singer Nancy Ames, the Highwaymen and a TV-style orchestra.

1967

• St. Petersburg’s "Million Dollar Pier" is torn down.

1969

• U.S. astronaut Neil A. Armstrong is the first man on the moon.  • St. Petersburg City Council begins enforcing ordinance calling for removal of green benches.

1972

• Tyrone Square Mall opens and is a novelty because of air conditioning.

1973

• Inverted-pyramid building at head of The Pier opens.

1974

• President Richard M. Nixon resigns in disgrace after Watergate scandal.  • Vinoy closes, supposedly for only a year, for a $5-million renovation.

1975

• Vinoy closes permanently.  • Evacuation of Americans and Vietnamese from Saigon by U.S. helicopters ends the Vietnam war.

1978

• Vinoy furnishings are sold.  • In May, hotel annex is condemned by city and destroyed.  • In September, hotel is placed on the National Register of Historic Places.  • In October, plans are announced to reopen Vinoy as a Holiday Inn.

1979

• Webb’s City, the discount retail landmark, closes.

1980

• Reynolds loses lease on Vinoy; Gulfport entrepreneur Arthur H. Padula and St. Petersburg businessman Robert V. Workman obtain the lease.  • Blinding squall causes freighter Summit Venture to crash into Sunshine Skyway; 35 die.  See Also: Skyway bridge disaster coverage from 1980: Death rode in on early morning storm

1982

• Alberding refuses to extend Padula and Workman’s option on the Vinoy when it expires in December.

1983

• Ruth Eckerd Hall opens in Clearwater at cost of $13-million.  • Cincinnati investor Jerome J. Palumbo obtains 100-year lease on Vinoy, January.  • B.B. Andersen buys
99-year lease from Palumbo in the Fall, joins with Frederick E. Guest II and L. Bert Stephens and announces plans to restore hotel.

1984

• Voters approve November referendum allowing waterfront land swap, 99-year marina lease and protection for waterfront parks.  • Andersen and Guest agree to go their separate ways.  • Vinoy was saved from demolition.
See 'The old Vinoy, the battle to save it and the power of legacy' story

1985

• Guest announces Westin Hotels has signed letter of agreement to manage Vinoy.

1986

• Vinoy developers miss April 1 deadline for producing renovation plan. Guest says GAF Companies Inc. in Atlanta will join the project and will help raise $45-million in financing.  • Partnership between Guest and GAF dissolves.

1987

• Guest announces new Vinoy partnership and $39-million in financing by French bank, Societe Generale, for renovation of hotel, to be called Le Vinoy Park Hotel. Guest announces that Associated Inns & Restaurants Co. will operate hotel.  • Lease for marina in Vinoy basin, approved in 1984, expires in November.  • The new Sunshine Skyway bridge — officially the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway bridge, named after the former governor and U.S. senator, opened on April 20 at a cost of $240-million.

1988

The Don CeSar Hotel celebrates its 60th Anniversary.

1989

• Charles Alberding, onetime owner of Vinoy, dies.  Voters approve referendum giving developers 99-year lease on marina.

1990

• Vinoy developers announce in February they have $66-million from Barclays Bank PLC of England and Credit Lyonnais of France. Stouffer hotel chain will provide
$5-million and operate the Vinoy. ((!!venues))  • Florida Suncoast Dome opens.
• Vinoy restoration and marina construction begins, spring.   • South Core, (first stage of
$200-million Bay Plaza downtown renovation plan), is finished but has no tenants.
• 26-story Barnett Tower opens in downtown St. Petersburg at cost of $56-million.

1991

• New span of the Howard Frankland bridge opens at cost of $54-million.

1992

• The new Stouffer Vinoy Resort opens, July 31.

1994

• We stayed at the Stouffer Vinoy Resort in June for my Lakewood High School 20 year reunion!

1998

• Dunedin was honored by being included on the list of "America’s Best Walking Towns".

2002

The Vinoy celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its grand reopening.

2012

It’s been two decades since The Vinoy had its grand reopening.

2015

The Vinoy originally opened 90 years ago (retrospect).
The Don CeSar Hotel is named Best Historic Hotel in America.

2016

St. Petersburg’s Vinoy Renaissance Resort, breaks ground on renovations on May 11.

2017

The 68-year-old landmark, the Soreno Hotel, went out with a bang 25 years ago in      January.
The Don CeSar Hotel is sold to Host Hotels & Resorts in January and the deed was      recorded in March.
The Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club gets new owner in July.

2018

Paul’s Landing at the Vinoy combines upscale charm, family-friendly vibe, picturesque setting.

2019

The St. Pete Beach home of the man who built the Don CeSar Hotel is on sale for      $1.25 million.
The Sunshine Skyway bridge plunged into Tampa Bay 39 years ago.

2020

40 years after the Skyway bridge disaster, divers can’t forget what they saw underwater.

2021

St. Petersburg’s Vinoy hotel planning remodel for 2022.

– Resources: 'St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream', by Raymond Arsenault; The World Almanac; The People’s Chronology; New York Times; and Times files.

Here are links to all of the Vinoy articles:

What’s in a name Aymer Vinoy Laughner: Built downtown palace ....(10/1990)

From ritzy to ratty and back again, The Vinoy has come full circle ......(7/1992)

The story continues: See 'Vinoy verdict: exceptionally elegant' story ...(8/1992)

The Vinoy celebrates the 10-year anniversary of its grand reopening ..(8/2002)

Been 20 years since The Vinoy had its grand reopening, renaissance ...(7/2012)

Vinoy House was once Aymer Vinoy Laughner’s winter home ..............(5/2014)

The Vinoy Legacy: The $93 million restoration and (more history) ....(11/2014)

The Vinoy originally opened 90 years ago, a step back (retrospect) ......(7/2015)

The Vinoy will be getting a facelift: breaks ground on renovations .......(5/2016)

Vinoy Renaissance St. Petersburg Resort & Golf Club - new owner .....(7/2017)

Paul’s Landing at the Vinoy is the newest restaurant to open ................(3/2018)

The old Vinoy, the battle to save it and the power of legacy ...................(6/2018)

More stories and chronological timeline of Vinoy (more history 2) .......(9/2019)

St. Petersburg’s Vinoy hotel planning remodel for 2022 .........................(9/2021)

More pictures of The Vinoy