Plus, the Vinoy was part of the city’s logo. She thought
it was important to hang onto. To remember. “It’s our
history,” she says. “It’s who we are.”
Anet formed a political action committee. She printed 20,000
fliers. She talked to everyone she could. She hung a banner on
the building: “Vinoy and Parks -- Vote Yes! Yes! Yes!”.
Before the crucial council vote, Anet organized a tour. More
than 10,000 people came to the open house, taking in the water
views from the hotel’s balconies, pressing their hands to
its historic arches. One couple who had married at the Vinoy
47 years earlier came to reminisce.
Anet and the other volunteers wore their flat-brimmed straw hats
and took questions.
Two days later, the vote was a resounding yes. The Vinoy was
saved, then restored.
Anet moved on to helping preserve the Carnegie Library and the
Colisseum, retrofitting the Studebaker Building, even crossing
the bay to establish Tampa’s Hyde Park Historic District.
But that was then. Now, Anet has lost 30 pounds. She can’t
leave her bedroom anymore. She was diagnosed with a terminal
illness two years into what was supposed to be her retirement.
She wonders:
Is it important, to be remembered?
She doesn’t care about her name echoing through the alleys
that it’s now hip to paint with murals. She knows much more
has been lost to the history books.
It would be okay, she thinks, if just her grandchildren know
what she was a part of saving. “That the reason it is the
way it is,” she says, “is because we were there.”
***
The tour group is back in the lobby, having been ousted by the
name-tagged insurance agents. “That’s all right,”
Shirley says. Two tourists from Philadelphia join the huddle
as the docent points out the stucco walls and wood floors.
“They advertised this place as fire-proof,” Shirley
says, returning to her tale. Back in the ’20’s, people
were terrified of hotel fires. But this wood, here, was termite-proof
and burned slowly. Even when vagrants had set fires on the floor,
it stood its ground.
The docent goes on to tell the group about Aymer Vinoy Laughner,
the Pennsylvania oilman who built the hotel; about the mayors
and the developers; about the famous baseball players who will
only stay in newer parts of the Vinoy, too superstitious about
ghosts.
There is no mention of Anet Willingham. The tour is less than
two hours, and too many people have played a hand here to name
them all. But standing in the lobby, just outside the ballroom,
Shirley tells the group to look up.
On the ceiling are wood beams from the original hotel. “Pecky
cypress,” she explains. It’s called “pecky”
because of a dry rot that gets into the wood. That creates holes.
The holes, she says, are what makes it beautiful.
See also:
 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)
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
Go Back to The Vinoy history timeline
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