Sunday Favorites: The Significance of The Seahorse

You may have noticed a large, bronze addition to the Palmetto waterfront. The giant Seahorse, which welcomes visitors to the city, is a tribute to another swimmingly iconic sculpture that greeted visitors many years ago.

Voyagers in the 1950s, 60s and 70s traveling north on U.S. 41 (the only intrastate route available for travel back then) remembered Palmetto as the city with the iconic gift shop, marked by a large seahorse statute. The shop, which was located at the foot of the Green Bridge, was owned by Ed and Evelyn Winter and housed a menagerie of "pets" included alligators, rattlesnakes, monkeys and even and an ancient macaw named Scarlett.

It wasn't just the animals that drew in customers. There was always an off chance that guests might catch Ed milking rattlesnakes in the parking lot -- a dangerous, but extremely entertaining spectacle.

The Seahorse Gift Shop was a dedicated stop for many tourists. It also employed many locals who cherish their time spent at the bizarre, but successful, business. The Palmetto Community Redevelopment Agency and officials at the City of Palmetto have been working hard to recreate the landmark for more than five years.

The city commissioned St. Petersburg artist Ron Berman to refabricate the sculpture. On September 10, the long awaited project came to fruition when the sculpture was placed at Palmetto's southernmost entrance near the foot of the Green Bridge, very close to where the original, 30-foot model stood.

The following information was collected from personal interviews I conducted in 2015 with Tommy Winters, son of Ed and Evelyn, and Beverly & Raymond Varnadore, who both worked at the Seahorse as teenagers.

The Winters opened the Seahorse Gift Shop in 1953. They first began enticing visitors to stop in with a sign for free, fresh-squeezed orange or papaya juice. Business picked up even more when a pen full of snakes was added to the parking lot, along with two monkeys on leashes, which peaked the curiosity of anyone passing by.

Susie, an orangutan, and JoJo, a spider monkey, were favorites among locals. They were finicky about who they warmed up to. Sometimes Susie would pick out a child, approach them, and give them a big hug -- but she wouldn't let go.

Ed didn't have to look far for his inventory of rattlesnakes and alligators. Every year, a cluster of female gators nested near the Palmetto Methodist church. Concerned with church attendance, the congregation hired Ed to remove the gators in time for Sunday service. Ed adopted them as pets, creating a small habitat in the back of his shop. In addition, patrons of the shop could purchase small Caimans that ranged from one to two feet in length and were much less intrusive than the six to eight footers Ed kept on display.

When Ed's most famous alligator, "Old Joe" died of old age. Ed and his son Tom gave him a dignified burial in the mangroves next to the pavilion at the Palmetto Boat Ramp.

Ed had no fear of snakes. Many Palmetto residents relied on him to remove an unwanted rattlesnake that slithered into their home or cupboard. Ed caught them and brought them back to the shop where they were kept in a pen and milked for anti-venom.

Scarlett, the macaw, was probably the most memorable creature at the Seahorse. She could actually hold conversations with the customers. It wasn't just her brains and beauty that contributed to her popularity; the longevity of her stay and the tragedy of her death also played a part in her legacy.

The Winters owned Scarlett for over fifty years. After selling the Seahorse in 1966, they built her a beautiful outdoor cage so the neighborhood children could still visit her on a daily basis. On the night of Feb. 9, 1982, Scarlett was kidnapped from her outdoor cage.

Palmetto Detectives Kenneth Bright and Terry Johnson tracked the bird to Indiana. A 17-year-old juvenile snatched her the night before his family relocated because he "really liked her." Because she was kept outdoors, Scarlett was susceptible to attacks by other animals. Despite the quality of her custom cage, raccoons managed to break in and kill her. The whole town mourned the loss.

One of the Seahorse's specialties was shells and shell products. Artists used a diamond bladed saw to grind and smooth the delicate edges of the shells in order to shape jewelry. Another profitable product was the shell lamps which were created in-house then sold to Webb's City, a famous drugstore in St. Petersburg.

The Seahorse operated until 1976 when the bridge was expanded to two lanes, the right-of-ways were reduced and the Seahorse was razed.

The Palmetto CRA originally planned to create a bait shop with a seahorse as a wind vane to pay homage to the original landmark. I'm happy to see they went all out and recreated the sculpture in its entirety. The Seahorse has come full circle, again becoming a symbol synonymous with the city. Kudos to the City of Palmetto for bringing back the vibrant history of the gift shop which can be remembered with a nostalgic fondness for generations to come.