Historically St. Pete: The incredible history of St. Pete High, Florida’s first million dollar high school

When St. Petersburg High school’s 5th Avenue North campus was constructed in 1926, the building was Surrounded by farms, orange groves and cattle | St. Petersburg Museum of History

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 delve into the incredible history of Florida’s first million dollar high school — St. Petersburg High’s 98-year-old campus on 5th Avenue North.

The top photo shows St. Petersburg High School’s first graduating class in the new building on 5th Avenue in 1927. The bottom photo was taken in present day on July 31st, 2024 | St. Petersburg Museum of History, ST. pete Rising

In the early morning of August 31, 2012, St. Petersburg nearly lost one of its architectural treasures.

For nearly a century, St. Petersburg Senior High School has majestically stood at 2501 5th Avenue North, a symbol of the city’s 1920s affluence and prosperity, but at 4:00 a.m. that August morning, a fire swept through the auditorium attic. If not for the quick work of the St. Petersburg Fire Rescue, it would have spread throughout the historic main building.

School resumed days later, and over $1 million in damage was repaired in weeks.

But St. Pete High’s history runs deeper than the 5th Avenue campus. That site is not the first home of the Green Devils – it is the fourth.

Founded in 1898, the high school was part of the Graded School, near the current location of City Hall. As the city’s population grew, a one-building schoolhouse was not going to cut it.

In 1911, a new St. Petersburg High School was built across the street from City Hall, in the middle of what is now 2nd Avenue North.

It did not take long for the city to outgrow that neo-Classical structure. A bigger St. Pete High opened on Mirror Lake Drive in 1919.

A current photo of St. Petersburg High School’s Mirror Lake campus that opened in 1919. The building was converted to condominiums in 1991. | St. Pete Rising

The 1920s boom brought wealth and families to St. Petersburg. Just five years after the opening of the Mirror Lake campus, city leaders were again faced with the task of building an even larger high school.

Surrounded by farms, orange groves and cattle, the site they chose was well outside the populated area of downtown. Legend says there was a horse-tying hitch outside the school.

City leaders set out to hire an architect that could dream up a school that matched the image and architecture of St. Petersburg. After all, the Soreno and Princess Martha hotels had just opened, the Vinoy was on the drawing table, and Perry Snell was putting up European-styled mansions at a torrid pace along Coffee Pot Bayou.

Mediterranean Revival was the style of the day, and William B. Ittner delivered.

A Missouri architect, Ittner designed over 400 schools in his career, but none as impressive as the 5th Ave home of the Green Devils.

St. Petersburg High School in 1927, one year after the new building debuted on 5th Avenue North | St. Petersburg Museum of History

Courtyards, fountains, grandiose arches, private waterworks, its own electric light plant, a red barrel tile roof, and ornate stonework above the entrance that is uncannily similar to the work on the Snell Building on Central Avenue, made it standout from schools of that day, or today for that matter.

The price tag would be an astonishing $1 million – the first high school in Florida to cost seven figures.

Other firsts would follow. St. Pete High’s newspaper, the Palmetto & Pine, started in 1904 and was the oldest continual weekly newspaper in the state. In 1983, St. Petersburg High was awarded the first International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme in Florida.

St. Petersburg High School in 1944 | St. Petersburg Museum of History

Every year that passed since it opened in December of 1926, thousands of students walked the hallways, and it took its toll on the building. By the late 1970s rumors started that the school’s days were numbered.

Enter Bob Pfeiffer. The 1933 SPHS graduate fondly remembered as Mr. Green Devil, Pfeiffer dyed his beard and hair green, dressed as a green devil, and attended every school function possible. Pfeiffer led the “Give the Devil Its Due” campaign in 1980 and helped secure the funding to repair the school.

He also spearheaded the drive to have SPHS added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

In 2019, the Pinellas School Board authorized a major renovation of St. Petersburg High School. The front of the building was painstakingly returned to its 1926 brilliance.