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The railroad actually arrived only when General John C. Williams, founder of St. Petersburg, traded some of his land to have the rail line built. On June 14, 1888, the first train of the Orange Belt Railroad arrived, giving Clearwater and the Pinellas peninsula a rail link to the outside world.
Clearwater’s first railway passenger station, a Russian-style frame building, was built in 1888, based on a design by Demens.
With the arrival of tourism, the first hotels and the first railroad, Clearwater was no longer a quiet homestead. It was poised for the further growth which came its way in the 1890s, as we will see in the next chapter.
Recommended Reading: Clearwater: A Pictorial History, by Michael L. Sanders; Yesterday’s Clearwater, by Hampton Dunn; A History of Pinellas County, By W.L. Straub; and Clearwater: A Sparkling City, by Roy Cadwell.
YOU ARE PART OF THE HISTORY OF CLEARWATER
We are working on the next editions of the series to bring it up to the present. If your life, or your family’s or your neighbor’s is an interesting chapter in Clearwater history, please write to Freedom Magazine c/o Church of Scientology, 503 Cleveland Street 33755, or call (727) 467-6860.
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