The rich history of St. Petersburg's Jungle is shared by three neighborhoods(Click here for maps of the Jungle)
Recently there have been several articles in print and digital media that refer to the historic Spanish Mediterranean hotel building at 501 Park Street as the "Jungle Prada Hotel." For the record, that building was never called the Jungle Prada Hotel – at least not until the recent confusion.
From the time it opened in 1926 until it closed, the hotel was called the Jungle Hotel, Jungle Country Club Hotel, or Jungle Club Hotel – but never the Jungle Prada Hotel. The building is now part of Admiral Farragut Academy.
Perhaps we could think of it as the "Jungle Prada" hotel, since it's the hotel in the Jungle Prada neighborhood – except it's not. According to the city of St. Petersburg's neighborhood maps, the Jungle Hotel is in the Azalea neighborhood. This makes sense – the Azalea neighborhood is on the former Jungle Country Club golf course which adjoined the hotel property (as described on the postcard above – "Jungle Hotel and Country Club"). Tax parcel descriptions of property in the Azalea neighborhood list the subdivision as "Jungle Country Club."
Below is a section of the city of St. Petersburg's map of neighborhood associations. The neighborhood boundaries are indicated by a thin black line. Labels have been added to show the location of Piper-Fuller Airfield, Jungle Prado, and the Jungle Hotel.
In the city of St. Petersburg's Living Local: Jungle Prada video, the "Jungle Prada Hotel" is said to be the anchor of the Jungle Prada neighborhood. This would be true except the building has never been called the "Jungle Prada Hotel" and it's not in the Jungle Prada neighborhood.
To complicate matters, in the 1950's there actually was a Jungle Prada Apartment Hotel in the Jungle Prado building at 1700 Park Street, now Jungle Prada Tavern. That historic building is in the Jungle Prada neighborhood.
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| The Tampa Tribune, Jul 22, 1951 |
Elsewhere, I've seen the Piper-Fuller Airfield described as being part of Jungle Prada history. It would have been correct to say that it is part of Jungle Terrace history or Jungle history, but not Jungle Prada history – it was located nearly a mile from the Jungle Prada neighborhood.
The history of the Jungle Prada Hotel is confusing because even if a hotel had existed by that name at 501 Park Street North, it's not in the Jungle Prada neighborhood.
I started researching the history of my home and neighborhood a couple of years ago. My focus is on the former Jungle Country Club Hotel and the golf course where my home was built. I found that each of the Jungle neighborhoods has a remarkable history. It's incorrect to equate all Jungle history with the Jungle Prada neighborhood.
