The bungalow with cedar siding at 424 Park Street North has undergone some major renovations over the years, but it is still standing. Today, a wooden fence and heavy foliage obscure a view of the home.
Related post: Walter P. Fuller's 1926 Residence
While in his senior year at the University of North Carolina in 1915, Walter P. Fuller married Freddie Burden from Aulander, North Carolina. He built a house in Davista and started a family in 1916.
For the next few years, Walter P. was a partner in his father's many ventures in the St. Petersburg area including the streetcar line, electric power plant, a steamship line, orange groves, hotels and real estate companies engaged in developing west St. Petersburg. During those years, there were numerous stories in the society section of the St. Petersburg Times about parties at the beautiful Davista home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter P. Fuller.
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| 424 Park Street North (this is a 2007 photo digitally altered to simulate a vintage illustration) |
Freddie gave birth to Henry Walter Fuller II (named after his grandfather) in December 1916. He was just the second native Davistan to enter the world. A second son, Frederick Pliny Fuller, was born two years later.
An economic downturn soon bankrupted Fuller's companies. Walter P. took on several different positions to make ends meet. He moved his family to a rental property near downtown St. Pete and began renting out the spacious 12-room bungalow on Boca Ciega Bay.
Fuller lost title to the house at one point, but was able to regain it in 1921 when the real estate market began to recover. Then, in 1922, Fuller's financial condition improved significantly when Jack Taylor purchased 1800 acres of Fuller property south of the Jungle for his Pasadena-on-the-Gulf development.
By that time, Walter and Freddie were planning to divorce. It's not clear who was responsible for the breakup, but Freddie left town with the two boys and relocated to Coral Gables, remarrying in 1927. Walter had a new girlfriend ‒ St. Pete newspaper columnist Eve Alsford. They were married in 1924 and built a new Mediterranean revival style home on the same block as the 1916 bungalow.
The bungalow was sold to a Rochester, New York, real estate investment firm in 1925 and then to Fuller's friend Robert Lassing in 1928. The property has changed hands several times over the years, most recently in 2014 when it sold for $1,600,000.
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| 1942 aerial photo of Fuller's two homes at 424 and 450 Park Street North. |
