Snell Arcade

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Snell Arcade
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)

Location:	St. Petersburg, Florida
Added to NRHP:	November 4, 1982

The Snell Arcade (also known as the Rutland Building) is a historic site in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is located at 405 Central Avenue. On November 4, 1982, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Judy Stark of The St. Petersburg Times called the Snell Arcade the "Belle of the Ball" among Tampa Bay Area architectural treasures.

Indeed the building often appears on local televisions stations as an area icon, on magazine covers, and in just about every photography project in South Pinellas County.

Built by roaring twenties developer Perry Snell, the Arcade has shined through eight decades of Florida history. Here is a brief synopsis.

Facts & Figures

Constructed: $750,000 in 1920 dollars Renovated: $100,000 in 1937 dollars Restored: $3 million in 1980 dollars

1926

In 1926, Florida’s economy was on a roll. Real estate speculation and development were booming and the St. Petersburg landscape seemed to change daily. It was an era of grand architecture, grand hotels and grand dreams—a time of elegance and extravagance. A time that was a perfect match for the taste and talents of developer, C. Perry Snell. visionary and an entrepreneur, Perry Snell’s legacy to St. Petersburg was bountiful...the Snell Isle development...Granada Terrace...the area’s first major league baseball team...And downtown’s crown jewel: the Snell Arcade.

One of ten Arcades built during the roaring twenties, the Snell Arcade is one of only three that remain. Classified as Mediterranean Revival architecture, the Snell Arcade also features Gothic touches and elements of pure fantasy. Art and architecture connoisseurs prize the original terra-cotta construction, a unique third-floor terrace suggestive of a Spanish village, and a host of unusually elaborate ornamentation that includes portrait medallions, shields, urns and finials and fantasy columns.

Tile llamas dance in the clouds on an out-of-the-way chimney. Angels and boars’ heads guard the third-floor terrace. Pink marble graces the stairwell. And in the Arcade itself, an ordinary wall is transformed by a seventeenth century masterpiece.

Perry Snell was an irrepressible world-traveler and collector. On his travels, he gathered mosaics, tiles and statuary from all over the globe and brought them home to include in his buildings. The effect was attention getting. When the Snell Arcade was first completed, it was even referred to as “exposition architecture.”

The original Arcade housed ten stores on the ground level, offices on the upper floors and a nightclub that opened onto the third-floor terrace. “Spanish Bob’s” as it was known, was a popular hot spot and has been featured in several area histories.

Famous baseball legend Babe Ruth was one of it many patrons.

Not your run of the mill office building, the Snell Arcade has not had your run-of-the-mill history. A series of prominent owners has lavished attention and money on the building’s unique charms.

Snell’s grand vision foundered with the onset of the Depression, and the Arcade was lost in foreclosure to an insurance company.

1937

But in 1937, it was purchased by Walgreen and Company. They paid $500,000.00 and put another $100,000.00 in remodeling.

1943

The Arcade caught the eye of Hubert Rutland —founder of the banking empire,who purchased it in 1943 and also remodeled.

1950

Many of the building’s unique charms were hidden by so-called “modernization.”

1980

John C. Galbraith of Security Fund Management, Inc. purchaced the building and undertook a complete restoration.

Charles Cannerday was the architect in charge of restoration. His first challenge was figuring out what to restore. “We couldn’t define where the original arcade had been. It had been so covered up with cheap paneling and dry wall that we couldn’t even see the layout.”

Cubby holes had been added everywhere and a false floor obscured the lofty Arcade skylight. Toilets had been installed where colonnaded glass now over looks the Arcade. Most of the “modernization” done in the 1950’s would need to be undone.

“When we started demolition, we suspected there might be something special in the walls, so we proceeded very carefully.”

Cannerday’s caution paid off. Buried inside the drywall was a treasure house of craftsmanship— columns, arches and other unique architectural detailing that contemporary budgets seldom allow. But the most startling discovery awaited them on the mezzanine level.

“We opened a door and went into a storage room. There were all these boxes stacked against the wall, but we could see bits of tile behind them. When we pulled the boxes away, we found the mosaic.”

Cannerday’s discovery turned out to be a seventeenth century treasure: A 6 x 12 foot mural of a Baroque Venetian church — a mosaic created by Baldassare Longhena in 1631. The mosaic had been imported with Perry Snell’s other European acquisitions and somehow, over the years, it had simply been forgotten.

“We felt like archeologists when we started,” says Cannerday. “Everywhere you turned there was treasure to be uncovered.”

Prior to restoration, the Longhena mosaic was completely enclosed with a foam and plywood structure that was then bolted to the concrete. After months of shaking and jarring, as jack hammers and torches cut through layers of unsightly additions, it was finally time to remove the covering. Cannerday was afraid.

“We didn’t know what we’d find.” Workers began to pull the structure apart. “The cover swung open and there it was, not a crack in it. Not a tile lose. It was pristine — the mosaic had come through unscathed.”

According to Cannerday, he was not the only one to succumb to the building’s charms. Owners John and Rosemary Galbraith also fell in love with it.

“Every time we came to a situation where we had to make a choice, I would find alternatives,” says Cannerday. “I’d go to John and Rosemary and say, these are the options with regard to restoration. We can do this, or we can do this. And John would say, ‘You know Charles, we really want to do it right.’ And then he would write the check.”

The result was outstanding.

1983

In 1983, Cannerday accepted an award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Today, the Snell Arcade remains on the National Register of Historic Places. Located next door to St. Petersburg’s Open Air Post Office, the Snell Arcade occupies one of downtown’s busiest corners and is a prominent landmark in the Art Quarter...Long a symbol for downtown, the Arcade’s history follows the economic roller coaster of Florida’s gulf coast. It was built in the glittering twenties. Then sold in bankruptcy during the gloom of the Depression. It hung on through the “modernization” of the fifties. It endured the downtown exodus of the seventies. It was restored in the eighties and returned to profit in the nineties.

1994

Developer Peter Fischbach and partners acquired the building. Occupancy was running at 30%. According to Fischbach, “Downtown had emptied out. The approach to renting the building needed to change.” In earlier decades and with larger properties, business rental had been driven by large companies who leased entire floors. But the economy was changing. Fischbach and partners capitalized on it. Within a year, Arcade occupancy was up to 98%. The turnaround secret? Leasing to a sector of the market that has seen impressive growth in the last few years — small businesses and entrepreneurial efforts.

Happily, St. Petersburg’s downtown has changed. Business has returned. Retail is expanding. Restaurants and galleries now light up the night. Financial skyscrapers now dot the downtown skyline. But new construction lacks the patina of history — not to mention the extravagant architectural detailing of the past. Like the Don Cesar on the beach, and the Vinoy on the bay, the Snell Arcade is an enduring symbol of the elegant and gracious past...sure to retain its position as a prominent landmark in the thriving downtown landscape.

2003

Developer Fischbach started converting the Snell Arcade to a condominium with 11 residential units and seven commercial units.

"This elegant building is located in the heart of an increasingly exciting downtown St. Petersburg," he said. "It's just a short walk to a multiplex movie theater, two legitimate theaters, numerous galleries along the Central Art Walk, and many, many restaurants. What a great place to live. If Perry Snell were alive today, I'm sure that he would buy a unit and enjoy the best use of his building yet."