There were two Walter Fullers, both were visionaries and the Jungle neighborhood is their lasting legacy. H. Walter Fuller (1865-1942), the Jungle’s founding father, was the first person to promote the Jungle as a special place to live. He extended the streetcar line to the Jungle, developed a plan for the Jungle's streets and residential lots, and was the driving force behind the Jungle golf course.
Walter P. Fuller (1894-1973) continued his father's vision for the Jungle by building the Jungle Country Club Hotel, the Jungle Prado shopping complex and Piper-Fuller Airfield.
The founding father of the Jungle was born in 1865 in Civil War ravaged Atlanta.
In 1893, at age 18, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he moved to Bradenton, hoping the Florida climate would improve his health.
He invested in orange groves and became a millionaire at age 21 when a flu epidemic hit and orange juice was recommended by doctors to lessen the illness' symptoms and duration.
With this success, H. Walter Fuller diversified into other businesses – a steamship line, the first grocery store in Tampa, a road construction business, and a streetcar line in Bradenton.
He became a state representative and then state senator for Manatee County.
The Financial Panic of 1907 decimated his business holdings.
He moved to St. Petersburg and took a job with entrepreneur F.A. Davis and by 1909 he was a major shareholder in Davis’ empire which included the St. Petersburg Transportation Company (the trolley line), a steamship line, and the municipal electric company.
He began buying land near Boca Ciega Bay in an area he called “the Jungle.” As manager of Davis' trolley line, he was influential in extending the streetcar tracks to his real estate holdings in the Jungle.
He brought in professional city planner Thomas J. Meehan from Philadelphia to plat the Jungle community in western St. Petersburg.
In 1915, he and other local investors – including future St. Petersburg mayor Al Lang – arranged for the clearing of a large section of the Jungle to create a golf course (later named the Jungle Country Club golf course). Renowned golf course architect A. W. Tillinghast was hired to design the links. With residences along the fairways, the neighborhood was an early example of a planned golf course community.
Property was bought and sold in the Jungle. Most buyers were land speculators – relatively few homes were built.
In another setback, his overextended investments forced H. Walter into bankruptcy in 1917. A Philadelphia investor and friend of the Fullers, George C. Allen, bought the Jungle properties in 1919 at foreclosure prices and hired H. Walter Fuller to sell the Jungle real estate.
Over the next several years, his financial condition improved as he and son Walter P. Fuller worked together selling properties in the Jungle and other parts of St. Petersburg.
In 1922, during the slow summer season, H. Walter traveled to Hendersonville, North Carolina and established the Laurel Park real estate development near Asheville. By 1924, he was operating a full time real estate office in North Carolina – he turned over his interest in the Jungle properties to his son.
H. Walter Fuller continued to run his real estate business in North Carolina until his death in 1942 at the age of 77.
“[H. Walter Fuller] was a consummate gambler who always seemed to stretch his resources to the limit.” – Raymond Arsenault, St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream 1888-1950
Henry Walter Fuller (1865-1942)
Walter P. Fuller wrote of his father “H. Walter Fuller in all made eight fortunes, lost seven of them.”
The founding father of the Jungle was born in 1865 in Civil War ravaged Atlanta.
In 1893, at age 18, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and he moved to Bradenton, hoping the Florida climate would improve his health.
He invested in orange groves and became a millionaire at age 21 when a flu epidemic hit and orange juice was recommended by doctors to lessen the illness' symptoms and duration.
With this success, H. Walter Fuller diversified into other businesses – a steamship line, the first grocery store in Tampa, a road construction business, and a streetcar line in Bradenton.
He became a state representative and then state senator for Manatee County.
The Financial Panic of 1907 decimated his business holdings.
He moved to St. Petersburg and took a job with entrepreneur F.A. Davis and by 1909 he was a major shareholder in Davis’ empire which included the St. Petersburg Transportation Company (the trolley line), a steamship line, and the municipal electric company.
He began buying land near Boca Ciega Bay in an area he called “the Jungle.” As manager of Davis' trolley line, he was influential in extending the streetcar tracks to his real estate holdings in the Jungle.
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| Postcard circa 1915: Scene in the Jungle at Davista, St. Petersburg |
He brought in professional city planner Thomas J. Meehan from Philadelphia to plat the Jungle community in western St. Petersburg.
In 1915, he and other local investors – including future St. Petersburg mayor Al Lang – arranged for the clearing of a large section of the Jungle to create a golf course (later named the Jungle Country Club golf course). Renowned golf course architect A. W. Tillinghast was hired to design the links. With residences along the fairways, the neighborhood was an early example of a planned golf course community.
Property was bought and sold in the Jungle. Most buyers were land speculators – relatively few homes were built.
In another setback, his overextended investments forced H. Walter into bankruptcy in 1917. A Philadelphia investor and friend of the Fullers, George C. Allen, bought the Jungle properties in 1919 at foreclosure prices and hired H. Walter Fuller to sell the Jungle real estate.
Over the next several years, his financial condition improved as he and son Walter P. Fuller worked together selling properties in the Jungle and other parts of St. Petersburg.
An article in the St. Petersburg Times in 1923 said "H. Walter Fuller and his son, Walter P. Fuller, are here to enjoy and profit from the success which has attended the coming true of dreams and visions they conceived and helped to foster through the years...never once have they wavered from the original dream and never once have they been lacking in optimism.”
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| H. Walter Fuller |
In 1922, during the slow summer season, H. Walter traveled to Hendersonville, North Carolina and established the Laurel Park real estate development near Asheville. By 1924, he was operating a full time real estate office in North Carolina – he turned over his interest in the Jungle properties to his son.
Sources for this post include Raymond Arsenault, St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream 1888-1950; St. Petersburg Times, October 13, 2005, "Father and Son Ahead of Their Times' by Betty Jean Miller; St. Petersburg Times, April 17, 2002, "Fuller Defied Early Death to Gamble Big in Business," by Scott Taylor Hartzell; St. Petersburg Times, November 26, 1942, "H. Walter Fuller, Pioneer Developer Here, Dies."
