1962 Placemat Map of St. Petersburg, Florida

This 1962 placemat map of St. Petersburg, Florida is a promotional work for a seafood restaurant. Decorated with crawfish and other seafood, the centerpiece is a road map of St. Petersburg from its barrier islands on the Gulf Coast to the Tampa Bay shore, extending from Pinellas Point in the south to Bay Drive in the North. The map captures the city just prior to a series of major changes to its infrastructure: Boca Ciega Bay's landfill islands such as Capri, Paradise Island, and Yacht Club Estates did not yet exist, for example. The Pinellas Byway bridge does not appear here: it would not be completed until December, 1962. The Welch Causeway, connecting Madeira Beach with Seminole Boulevard, was built earlier that year, giving us the 1962 dating.

Eddie's Last Hurrah

At the center of this map is a drama directly related to the road-and-bridge building characterizing St. Petersburg in the early sixties. Prior to World War II, E. M. Storey had worked in automobile sales in Washington, D.C., but as a hobby had operated a handful of oyster boats in the Chesapeake. Wartime saw Storey captaining a tug in the Washington Naval Yard. At the end of the war, Storey and his wife sold his house and his business and relocated south on a 45-foot cabin cruiser, selecting St. Petersburg  to settle and start a new seafood venture. He purchased land, and opened a wholesale seafood market and drive-in named Eddie's Sea Foods in 1946. Storey expanded to include dining room service as early as 1948, and over the next decade added a motel to the business. As indicated on the map, Eddie's was located on the shore at the east end of the Seminole Bridge.