The Jungle Prado building (now called Jungle Prada) at 1700 Park Street North has an intriguing history.
Of the significant Jungle neighborhood buildings constructed during the Roaring 20's, the Jungle Prada is the only one that is open to the public (to patrons of JP Tavern). You can park for free and admire the architectural features of the building's exterior and you can even go inside and dine at JP Tavern while marveling at the ornate columns, archways, murals and other features. By the way, the food is great, too. A public pier is a few steps away. It juts out into Boca Ciega Bay and is frequented by pelicans, egrets, herons, ibises and other visitors.
In 1924, developer Walter P. Fuller engaged the firm of Ritchie, Parsons and Taylor to design the Jungle Prado (as it was known at the time). Architect Henry L. Taylor (of Vinoy Hotel fame) was one of the architects for the building. It would be the first of three major Jungle projects that were completed by the end of 1926. The Jungle Prado opened in December 1924; the Jungle Country Club Hotel began operation in February 1926. Later that year, Fuller Flying Field was dedicated on Thanksgiving Day.
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| Ornamental JP logo over a former entrance on Park Street. |
Fuller knew that in order to sell lots in St. Petersburg's outskirts, he would need to provide convenient access to life's necessities and pleasures ‒ so he built St. Petersburg's first shopping mall. The Jungle Prado (now Prada) retail space included the Gangplank speakeasy (Pinellas county's first nightclub), a drug store, grocery store, photography shop, landscape and nursery store, art and metal shop, bead store, drapery shop, real estate offices, and a hardware store. There was also a public waiting room for street car passengers and a fully-equipped garage and filling station.
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| Jungle Prado shops with awnings and business "shingles" hanging from wrought iron holders resembling a ship's sail. |
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| Advertisement for second season opening November 17, 1925. |
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| St. Petersburg Times May 29, 1926 - groceries delivered to your door! |
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| Jungle Prada Today: JP Tavern |
The Gangplank's terrace overlooked the Jungle Pier and Boca Ciega Bay ‒ sophisticates danced in the open air to the syncopated jazz sounds of RCA recording artists Earl Gresh and the Gangplank Orchestra. Prohibition was the law, but there was no shortage of bootleg liquor which arrived by land (stashed in a nearby house), sea (the Jungle Pier), and air (Fuller Flying Field).
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| Jungle Prada today: Gangplank terrace and ship prow overlooking Jungle Pier and Boca Ciega Bay. |
Deep sea fishing boats left daily from the Pier at Jungle Prado. An early morning pier-to-pier street car favored serious anglers ‒ it departed from the downtown Million Dollar Pier and terminated at the Jungle Pier where fishing excursions awaited the trolley's arrival.
Boat lines connecting to the Gulf beaches left regularly from the Jungle Pier.
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| Gangplank terrace circa 1925. |
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| Ship's concrete prow is still intact on the Gangplank terrace. |
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| Vintage photo of Gangplank, concrete ship prow on left. |
In his book "St. Petersburg and Its People," Fuller wrote that the "Jungle Prado building in fact rests on top of a large Indian burial mound...There were serious construction difficulties, ... [construction] had been delayed because there were so many human skeletons in the way. So apparently several hundred dead Indians have their final resting place, marked and preserved by a rather impressive three hundred foot long building, architecturally Spanish in style."
The Florida land boom fizzled in 1926 ‒ Fuller was the victim of bad timing. He wrote "this writer failed because he got his cart before his horse. He built the shopping center first, with the homes and the people to follow, but the Boom blew and there turned out to be no people."
The land boom may have ended, but seasonal tourism kept the Gangplank in operation for several more years until the Great Depression.
There are rumors that Babe Ruth was married at the Jungle Prado and that Al Capone was an owner at one time. Neither rumor is true. The wedding rumor changed to a story of a lavish wedding reception at the Gangplank for Babe and Claire, which might be true but I haven't found any evidence of that.
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| Babe Ruth marries Claire Merritt Hodgson on April 17, 1929 at St. Gregory's Roman Catholic Church in New York City. (colorized) |
Bill DeYoung writes in an article for the St. Pete Catalyst, that Ruth was "known to enjoy certain delicacies at the Gangplank." It seems certain that Babe Ruth visited the Gangplank, since he frequented the nearby Jungle Golf Course and the Jungle Hotel. He had a reputation for drinking and carousing, especially in his younger years, but I could find no evidence that he was a regular at the Gangplank. By 1925, the first year that the Yankees trained in St. Petersburg, his behavior was changing and he began focusing on getting into shape in the spring.
History and timeline:
- 1924 - Jungle Prado opens in December.
- 1925-1926 Profitable years for Gangplank nightclub.
- 1926 - Florida land boom ends.
- 1927 - Wild monkeys migrate from Pasadena and live near the Jungle Prado for several years.
- 1930's - the Great Depression. During this period, Jungle Prado was mostly vacant, but Walter P. Fuller maintained a real estate office there. Sometime in the 1930's, investor Jacob Disston bought the property from creditors.
- 1930 - Gangplank's final season. A lavish wedding reception is said to have been held at the Gangplank for Babe Ruth and his second wife Claire.
- 1933 - a theatrical group known as the Band Box Players renovated the Gangplank, added seating and performed a series of plays for subscribers and guests.
- 1941 - Former store units were converted to apartments by new owner, Mrs. Ottilie Gobel ‒ the apartments were advertised as the Jungle Prada Apartments ‒ future name variations would include Jungle Prada Apartment Hotel and Court, Jungle Prada Hotel, and Jungle Prada Inn.
- 1943 - an Army day room (recreation center) was opened in Jungle Prado donated by Ottilie Gobel for military trainees temporarily stationed on the golf course's tent city.
- 1950 - a relative of Mrs. Gobel, Edith Holbert, took over as the manager of the Jungle Prada and made significant improvements to the property adding more apartments, a lounge with a fireplace, a pool, and tennis courts. She even kept monkeys on the property.
- 1954 - Swiss chef Walter Hesser bought the building for $150,000 and enlarged the dining area. The Jungle Prada Restaurant served Swiss cuisine until 1968.
- 1968 - John Petrauskas of Chicago purchased the Jungle Prada for $250,000. The purchase consisted of 3 1/2 acres of land, 35 motel rooms and apartments (that number sounds high, but that is what was reported in the newspaper), a swimming pool, sauna, two tennis courts, private beach, small dock, solarium and picnic area. (St. Petersburg Times, Nov 23 1968). Update April 12, 2022: James of South Pasadena provided clarification on the 35 motel rooms and apartments: "The reason for the seemingly high number of apartments is because at some point in its development, two other buildings were added to the property on the north side of the lot or what would be considered "behind" the Prada building since it faces south ... The buildings were in a "T" formation, the building closest to Park St. being perpendicular to the road and the other building closer to the bay perpendicular to the first ... They are obviously long gone now since most of that property was sold to accommodate the townhomes that have been built there."
- 1994 - K-S Investments made plans to tear down the Jungle Prada building and build 25 townhouse apartments on the site. Preservationists successfully fought to save the building, citing more than 200 Tocobaga Indians buried under the landmark. Current law prohibits willfully and knowingly disturbing human remains.
Jungle Prada Features:
- 340 feet long
- Spanish style architecture
- Moorish influences
- copper turrets
- keyhole doorways
- mullioned windows
- ornate columns in interior
- tile wainscoting
- murals, columns, and archways in the bar area
- 35 motel rooms and apartments (St. Petersburg Times, Nov 23, 1968)
- St. Petersburg's first terrazzo floors
- cost when built: $250,000
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| Ornate columns in JP Tavern bar area. |
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| JP Tavern entrance to game room. |
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| JP Tavern's house cocktails recognize the property's history. |
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| 1952 Postcard - Jungle Prada lounge. |
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| Back of 1952 postcard. |
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| 1950's postcard: west side of Jungle Prada Apartment Hotel, ship prow on right. |
Restaurants in the Jungle Prada building (dates approximate):
- 1924 - Gangplank
- 1941 - Jungle Prado Chicken Dinner Restaurant
- 1942 - Jungle Prada Chicken Dinner Restaurant
- 1954 - Jungle Prada Restaurant (Swiss Cuisine) and Marana Cita
- 1973 - Chef Lazar's Continental Restaurant
- 1982 - Kyoto En Japanese Restaurant
- 1987 - Mr. Manny's
- 1990 - Charlie Saad's Restaurant and Lounge
- 1991 - Cafe Seville
- 1994 - Saffron's Caribbean Restaurant
- 2012 - Max and Sam's
- 2015 - JP Tavern
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| Today: partial view of Jungle Prada apartments. |
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| Today: Jungle Pier |
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| Egret on Jungle Pier. |
Suggested reading:
A Bit of History of... The Jungle Prada in the Jungle Terrace Newsletter, May 2005 (page 12).
Jungle Prada by Bob Miller of Jungle Terrace.
