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Nick Churton of Mayfair International Realty finds out exactly what an entrepreneur saw in a tidal Florida island in 1900 – and how that dream has become a delightful reality. It’s illustrated by a wonderful waterside home in St Petersburg now on the market with brokers, Smith & Associates.

In 1900 a savvy and hard working Kentucky pharmacist called C. Perry Snell – who also had the presence of mind to marry a wealthy heiress – moved to St. Petersburg, Florida and began buying properties on a muddy mangrove island where only 39 of its 275 acres remained dry at high tide. Not a very smart move some may have thought at the time. But by 1925 Snell had become the driving force behind the creation and emergence of the Snell Isle community – or ‘Pearl of the Pinellas’ as he put it – and had sold over seven million dollars’ worth of plots. That’s almost $94 million at today’s prices.

In 1926 Snell welcomed the Vinoy Hotel Resort, which is now on the US National Register of Historic Places. He also encouraged  the St Petersburg Women’s Club to provide a venue for what he thought to be the city’s strongest and most important organisation. This building is also on the National Register of Historic Places.

So Snell Isle is a pretty important place in the scheme of things. It is also a wonderful place to live. Fortunately every now and then a home comes on to the market. Often the most popular are the ones that back onto Smack’s Bayou with wide water views and great sunsets. There is one on the market now.1100 Cordova Blvd NE Street is a good example. This four bedroom house with fabulous kitchen is perfect for a Florida lifestyle that naturally includes lots of entertaining. But should you ever weary of this for a while you can simply go down to your own private dock, jump into your own private boat and within minutes be into another watery world of ospreys, dolphins and manatees. This is the other Florida lifestyle. Living on Snell Isle offers both.

Everyone who lives on the Isle has or will come to share in C. Perry Snell’s original vision for a place apart. Except that today the vision has become a reality and the reality is everything that Perry Snell could have wished for. You might wish for it too, in which case head for the local Tampa Bay real estate experts, Smith & Associates. Take it from me there is nothing about living the Florida lifestyle that they don’t know about or enjoy!