Walter P. Fuller papers

A prominent St. Petersburg realtor, historian, and politician, Walter Pliny Fuller was born on April 6, 1894 in Bradenton, Florida. His real estate career began during childhood, when he purchased several lots from his father using money earned from various jobs outside of his eighth grade classroom. While making payments on these lots, Fuller improved them and sold them at a considerable profit. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1915, becoming St. Petersburg High School’s first paid football coach. He went on to become a licensed real estate broker and was responsible for managing his father’s real estate empire. For two years, Fuller worked as an editor for the St. Petersburg Times and the Manatee River Journal. Between 1925 and 1926, he opened the Jungle Prada shopping center, the Jungle Country Club Hotel, and the Piper-Fuller Flying Field, the city of St. Petersburg’s first airfield. With the end of the economic boom in 1926, Walter Fuller lost much of his fortune. He became a supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidential campaign in 1936 before going on to serve a two-year term in the Florida legislature. In 1940, Fuller ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Senate, and three years later, became the chief clerk of Florida’s House of Representatives. He authored numerous publications, including St. Petersburg and its People (1972), This was Florida’s Boom (1954), and History of Florida Cavalcade: Six Lectures (1965). Fuller died in 1973 at the age of seventy-nine. Hartzell, Scott. Remembering St. Petersburg, Florida : Sunshine City Stories . Charleston, SC: History Press, 2006. Print.

Note written by Jean McAllister, 2011