Special. Merriam Webster defines "special" as “different from what is normal or usual; especially: unusual in a good way: better or more important than others.” In the truest spirit of the word, Sunken Gardens is special. We at iLovetheBurg.com went to the scene and had a chat with Sunken Gardens Supervisor and benevolent jungle shepherd, Bill O’Grady.

It all started when plumber Joe Turner purchased the land that was a dry sinkhole and devised a system to move out the water in 1903. Joe loved horticulture and planted unusual plants like Royal Palms, which stand today as the oldest and tallest in Florida. As the decades passed, the age of roadside attractions dawned and Sunken Gardens, which at this point was more of a menagerie that included a number of animals (like monkeys), rose to the top. It was a business model that favored the different, the unusual, and the better. It was an age of special. But the rise of more adrenaline inducing attractions like Disneyland came on the scene and new roads took 4th St. N. off the main drag. By the 1990’s, the place was designated a historic location but its days as a money-making roadside attraction were long gone.

“A rumor began to circulate that it (Sunken Gardens) was to become a nudist space,” Bill chuckles. The rumor galvanized the horrified community and the city raised the money to buy the property through a ballot measure. St. Petersburg purchased Sunken Gardens in 1999 to get the neglected roadside attraction back into shape. Now a master plan is being developed with money from the National Park Service through the Preserve America grant program and it sounds like Sunken Gardens may take its final and most magnificent form in the coming years.                        

“Let’s take a walk, shall we?” Bill leads the way along the winding concrete pathway through dark greens and generous shade. His excitement is infectious and, even though Sunken Gardens itself is a modest 4 acres, a tour with Bill can take a couple hours that slip easily by. He rattles off latin names and facts about the plants until we come upon a handful of bird cages mostly occupied by rescued macaws and parrots. Bill calls to the pair of kookaburras and they are thrown into fits of laughter. Is Bill some kind of forest spirit? It honestly wouldn’t have been a big surprise if he hovered in a half lotus position amongst a whirling dervish of butterflies.