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George Gandy Abstract of Title, bulk 1880s-1950s

 

Summary

Creator:
Gandy, George Sheppard, 1851-1946
Greene, Guy
West Coast Title Company (St. Petersburg, Fla.)
Abstract:
Materials document the land holdings and real estate records of George S. Gandy.
Extent:
1 folders
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

George Gandy abstract of title, Nelson Poynter Memorial Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL.

Background

Scope and content:

Abstract of title documents the land holdings of George S. Gandy, a local developer in the Pinellas Peninsula. The contents include typewritten copies of deeds, contracts, mortgages, liens, judgments, and other such items compiled from the public records of the Clerk of the Circuit Court in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties through July 12, 1957 (prior to 1912, Pinellas was part of Hillsborough County.)

Early records include real estate agreements transferring land from the State of Florida to Hamilton Disston, a Philadelphia capitalist who acquired four million acres of Florida land in the early 1880s for $1,000,000. A substantial portion of the Pinellas Peninsula was included in this transaction. Many of the documents pertain to a lawsuit involving Jacob S. Disston, Hamilton's brother, and the St. Petersburg Investment Company.

Biographical / historical:

George S. Gandy (1851-1946), once an "office boy" for Hamilton Disston and later a building contractor in Philadelphia, arrived in St. Petersburg in 1903. He came at the urging of F. A. Davis, a Philadelphia publisher who came to St. Petersburg to establish a streetcar railway and electric plant. Davis had also served as president of the St. Petersburg Investment Company. Gandy quickly diversified his interests in the small but growing city of St. Petersburg. His La Plaza theatre, once located at Fifth Street and Central Avenue, opened as a public venue in 1913. In November 1924, "Dad" Gandy's namesake bridge connected St. Petersburg and Tampa at the height of the Florida land boom.

Acquisition information:
On November 15 2004, Guy Greene donated an abstract of title prepared by St. Petersburg's West Coast Title Company. Greene, a retired educator, owned this abstract of title, a document originally prepared for George N. Bickner.

Access and use

Terms of access:

None. The contents of the collection may be subject to copyright. Visit the United States Copyright Office's website at http://www.copyright.gov/ for more information.

Preferred citation:

George Gandy abstract of title, Nelson Poynter Memorial Library Special Collections and University Archives, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, FL.

Location of this collection:
140 7th Avenue South
St. Petersburg
FL
33701
USA