Florida Memory is administered by the Florida Department of State, Division of Library and Information Services, Bureau of Archives and Records Management. The digitized records on Florida Memory come from the collections of the State Archives of Florida and the special collections of the State Library of Florida.
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Real photo postcards
Service industries--Florida--Pinellas County--Saint Petersburg
Ecotourism--Florida--Pinellas County--Saint Petersburg
Attractions--Florida--Pinellas County--Saint Petersburg
Botanical gardens--Florida--Pinellas County--Saint Petersburg
Tourists--Florida--Pinellas County--Saint Petersburg
Physical Description
General Note
Numbers on back at bottom: FNC5506 & 107250. Postmarked 11 Mar 1975.
The Gardens began in 1903, when plumber and avid gardener George Turner Sr. purchased the six acres that would become a world famous botanical attraction. He drained a shallow lake 10 feet (3.0 m) below sea level to create his "sunken" garden. By the 1920s, Turner was charging a nickel for tours of the gardens. The Gardens eventually became widely popular, and from the 1950s through the 1970s were ranked among Florida's top ten commercial attractions. The City of St. Petersburg purchased Sunken Gardens in 1999 with funds from a voter-approved tax. The Gardens included the Sanitary Public Market. Designed by architect Albert Lee Hawes and constructed in 1926 it became the Coca Cola Bottling Company plant in the 1940s. The Turner family purchased the building in 1967 to create the World's Largest Gift Shop and the King of Kings Wax Museum. It was closed in 1995 and after restoration by the City of St. Petersburg was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 27, 2002.
Accompanying note: "Main entrance of Sunken Garden's new gift-attractions complex in St Petersburg, Florida. Visitors walk under a waterfall and through the side of a man-made cave into the world's largest gift shop. The garden is known for its radiant beauty and colorful tropical birds from around the world."
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Chicago Manual of Style
Florida News Bureau. Visitors at the entrance to Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg. 1975 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. <https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/331355>, accessed 8 June 2026.
MLA
Florida News Bureau. Visitors at the entrance to Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg. 1975 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 8 Jun. 2026.<https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/331355>
AP Style Photo Citation
(State Archives of Florida/Florida News Bureau.)
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