Sunken Gardens gets a new window into the past

Nearly a century after it opened to the public, Sunken Gardens – the longest-lived tourist destination in St. Petersburg – is officially recognizing and celebrating its history.

The four-acre botanical garden at 1825 4^th Street North, in the Old Northeast area, has been owned by the city since 1999. Behind its 14-foot walls, it still looks very much like the lush garden Jacksonville plumber George Turner and his wife Eula created from a swamp they bought in 1911. They transformed the site into a scenic showplace for hundreds of species of exotic and indigenous plants.

At a ceremony Monday morning, members of the extended Turner family joined Mayor Ken Welch and attraction officials in cutting the ribbon on a building dedicated to telling the Sunken Gardens story – a tale as rich and fertile as carefully-cultivated garden topsoil, with roots that go back to the earliest days of the Florida land boom.

George Turner looks out one of the History Center’s new front windows.

The new History Center, with photographs, text and even a video relic from Florida tourism’s heyday, has been erected inside a renovated building on the south side of the attraction. This was the site of the original entrance – dating back to the 1930s.

It was then that the Turners began charging a nickel admission to walk amongst their foliage and flowers, planted in neat rows along a winding garden path.

(When George Turner bought the property, he’d had to drain a massive sinkhole that had filled with water; what remained was a fertile loam nearly 15 feet deep and well below sea level. That’s where the word “sunken” came from.)

The family constructed a new entrance building around 1940, and it’s this structure – used for storage for decades – that has been refurbished as a home for the History Center.

From left: City councilmembers Ed Montanari and Deborah Figgs-Sanders, Mayor Ken Welch, Director of Arts, Culture and Tourism Celeste Davis and Sunken Gardens manager Lauren Kleinfeld.

“The historical assets of our city must be preserved and maintained,” Welch said at the ceremony. “And that’s why this History Center is so important. It honors our past, and the early pioneers who paved the way for the Sunken Gardens of today.”

Sunken Gardens, added Welch, brings in approximately $2 million for the city annually.

The construction and restoration cost between $400,000 and $500,000, according to attraction manager Lauren Kleinfeld. The money came from the Penny For Pinellas tax, the City of St. Petersburg, a grant from the State Division of Historical Resources and the nonprofit Sunken Gardens Forever Foundation.

Turner granddaughter Kathy Turner Lee is one of the latter group’s volunteers; she grew up in a house directly across the street from the new History Center.

“I played here,” she marveled. “I followed my dad around here. Now I volunteer here. I am so happy that my time volunteering at the garden overlapped the same time as the development of the History Center.”

Education and volunteer coordinator Jennifer Tyson headed the research team for the History Center exhibits. She expressed gratitude for the contributions and cooperation of the descendants of George and Eula Turner.

“The story of Sunken Gardens is really a family story,” Tyson said. “It’s the story of the Turner family that started with George Sr., and then continued through three generations. The resilience that they had to keep this garden over the years is just astounding to me.

“Ultimately, the Turners created a place for the community. For the city. Not only for tourists.”

The History Center opens to the public Oct. 22.

ADDITIONAL READING: Vintage St. Pete: Sunken Gardens