Pass a Grille
For 10,000 years, Indians hunted the prairies and fished the waters
of what later became Pass-A-Grille. The last group of Native
Americans to settle in the Pinellas County area were the Tocobagas
around 1000-1700 A.D. This are was first visited by Europeans
in 1528, when the Spanish explorer, Panfilio de Narvaez, anchored
off Pass-A-Grille Pass. Afterwards the island was used as a camp
ground for fishermen to obtain fresh water and to grill their catch.
According to legend, it is thought that Pass-A-Grille derives its
name from the French, Passe aux Grilleurs. In 1857, John Gomez, self
styled, "last of the pirates", began bringing excursionists here from
Tampa, which gave this area the distinction of perhaps being the
oldest resort on Central Florida's West Coast. Zephaniah Phillips, the
first homesteader settled here in 1886, and by the turn of the century
Pass-A-Grille had its first hotel and a ferry boat service from
what is now Gulfport. The town of Pass-A-Grille Beach was incor-
porated into the city of St. Petersburg Beach in 1957, and in 1989,
a section of Passe-A-Grill was declared a National Historic District.
Marker is on Gulf Way near 10th Avenue, on the right when traveling south.
Courtesy hmdb.org
