At St. Pete Rising, we are constantly providing comprehensive coverage on everything new and coming soon to the Sunshine City, but we think it’s also important to take a look back at our city's rich history.

Historically St. Pete, a monthly column on St. Pete Rising written by Executive Director of the St. Petersburg Museum of History Rui Farias, covers everything from the legend of underground mobster tunnels to the buildings and people that created the Sunshine City.

This month we explore the history of the 100-year-old The Jungle Country Club Hotel, located at 501 Park Street North, and how it became home to St. Petersburg’s Admiral Farragut Academy.

The Jungle Country Club Hotel, pictured in 1926 by the Burgert Brothers | St. Petersburg Museum of History

Walter P. Fuller called it one of the Boom Babies – one of a series of spectacular St. Petersburg hotels that opened within months of each other during the 1920s Florida Land Boom.

The Jungle Country Club Hotel, along with other Boom Babies, reflected the changing character of the City’s tourism industry. Smaller hotels and boarding homes built prior to World War I that housed snowbirds gave way to large resort-style hotels designed to attract affluent northerners to the newly dubbed Sunshine City.

The 1924-1926 years saw six of these magnificent hotels rise from the sandy ground of St. Petersburg, adding over 1,000 hotel rooms to the city seemingly overnight.

The Jungle Hotel was unique. It was the first of three 1920s hotels built on the west side of the city, and offered guests respite from the hustle and bustle of the rapidly growing Roaring 20s atmosphere of downtown St. Pete.

The jungle setting allowed the hotel to offer a variety of recreational activities such as deep-sea fishing on the Gulf of Mexico, hunting and horseback riding – foreign to visitors at downtown hotels.

Walter P. Fuller, along with his father, H. Walter Fuller, was instrumental in developing the west shore of St. Petersburg, and the centerpiece of their west St. Pete kingdom – the Jungle Country Club Hotel on Park Street.

Horseback riders at the Hotel, pictured in 1926 by the Burgert Brothers | St. Petersburg Museum of History

Created by famed New York architect Henry S. Taylor – who also is responsible for the Vinoy Park Hotel – the Jungle Hotel was designed in the Mediterranean Revival style of architecture, matching the Spanish and Italian styles that swept St. Pete in the 1920s. Taylor also designed the Jungle Prado retail center right down the road for the junior Fuller.

According to Fuller, the idea for the hotel had actually hatched 10 years earlier when the St. Petersburg Country Club was organized in 1915 and a golf course was designed and built. The economic downturn during World War I delayed the project, but Fuller had already planned for locker rooms, dining rooms and a 300-room hotel.

The St. Petersburg Daily Times proclaimed in a banner headline on March 28, 1915, that the golf course would attract golfers from all over the world.

The Jungle Country Club Hotel Entrance sign, pictured in 1926 by the Burgert Brothers | St. Petersburg Museum of History

Built in 1925, the Jungle Hotel was an instant success. It’s beautiful decorative tiles, Spanish-styled courtyards, luscious tropical gardens and pristine golf course that attracted celebrities such as Jack Dempsey, Jimmy Walker, Babe Ruth, and allegedly several quiet men who ran Al Capone’s gambling ship out on the Gulf of Mexico.

Ruth became a fixture at the Jungle Hotel. With the New York Yankees moving their training camp to St. Petersburg from New Orleans, Ruth would sometimes arrive a month early to enjoy fishing and golf. It became tradition for him to celebrate his February birthday at the Jungle Hotel.

For a short period of time, the hotel even had a radio station, as WJBB (later WSUN) broadcast live orchestra performances from the Jungle Hotel lobby.

Babe Ruth swinging a golf club on Feb 11, 1931 at The Jungle Country Club Hotel | St. Petersburg Museum of History

The Great Depression devastated the area’s tourist economy and hoteliers were hit hard. Fuller and the Jungle Hotel were having financial troubles, and he ended up losing it to his uncle O.C. Fuller. The uncle lost it to Judge J.M. Lassing, who eventually lost it to Commonwealth Life Insurance Company.

After the United States entered World War II in late 1941, St. Petersburg, like many Florida cities, transformed into a military training facility. The U.S. Army invaded St. Petersburg, taking over nearly all the hotels, including the Jungle Hotel.

In 1944, the luxurious Jungle Club Hotel was sold to Admiral Farragut Academy for $300,000. Then an all-boys prep boarding school, Admiral Farragut sold portions of the original golf course to a developer for construction of single-family homes.

Farragut Hall, as it stands today, at Admiral Farragut Academy | Admiral Farragut Academy

On November 5, 1992, the City Council of the City of St. Petersburg, Florida passed a resolution designating the Jungle Country Club Hotel, now called Farragut Hall, as a local historic landmark.

Adding to the building’s historic past, 1953 Farragut graduate Charlie Duke was a member of the Apollo 16 mission and walked on the Moon. And Stephen Stills, of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame, learned to play guitar while a student at Admiral Farragut – a far cry from Woodstock.