Their vision was bold: purchase nearby parcels of land and transform the sleepy field into a full-fledged municipal airport. Several tracts of land were acquired by the city in this period, and local papers speculated that the west side of town might soon be buzzing with passenger flights.
But they hadn’t counted on the Jungle's residents.
The Jungle Homeowners’ Association, newly organized and fiercely proud of their neighborhood’s quiet character, quickly mobilized. They argued that an airport would bring noise, danger, and industrial traffic into what had been carefully developed as a garden suburb. Letters were sent, petitions were circulated, and city meetings were packed with residents in their Sunday best, calmly making their case.
It worked. By the mid-1940s, the airport expansion plan was quietly shelved. Piper-Fuller field faded from prominence, eventually closing in the early 1950s. The city’s land holdings in the area sat unused for years until a new vision emerged. Instead of planes and terminals, the site would be transformed into green space. In 1960, what might have been an airport became Walter Fuller Park, one of the largest and most beloved recreational spaces in west St. Pete.
Today, few visitors strolling the park’s shaded walkways or watching baseball at the complex realize how close the Jungle came to having jets instead of jungle palms. Thanks to the neighborhood’s early activism, birds now fly overhead instead of planes.
