History of Tarpon Springs

Tarpon Springs is the largest city in Pinellas County and full of history with sites like the Spring Bayou and the Sponge Docks. Having attained incorporation as a city in 1887, Tarpon Springs was initially a vacation resort on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico for the aristocrats.

However, the discovery of sponge beds along the Gulf of Mexico and the Anclote River changed its destiny and by the close of the 19th century Tarpon Springs was on its way to being deemed the sponge capital of the world. With the sponge trade in the Aegean getting saturated, Greek divers from the Greek Dodecanese Islands arrived in America and Tarpon Springs happened to be the area they chose to settle in.

Today the Sponge Exchange has been transformed into a shopping mall and the region abound with Mediterranean flavor in Greek restaurants, a salt water aquarium, a sponge museum, and fishing excursions. Visiting this area is tops on everyone's lists when they vacation locally or when residents have friends and family in town.  It's a fun day out in the Florida Sunshine, strolling up and down Dodecanese Avenue shopping and tasting some of the local Greek food.

Tarpon Springs is a melting pot of cultures. The downtown area boasts of unique streetlights and antique shops, art galleries, wineries and curio stores. You can walk or ride the Trolley and check out Craig Park with its stately homes, the Unitarian Universalist Church with its religious paintings, Safford House representative of old Florida architecture, St. Michael's Shrine, and the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art.

You can undertake hiking in the trails at Anderson Park or enjoy the beaches hugging the Gulf of Mexico. You can skate, bike, walk or run down the 34 miles long Fred E Marquis Pinellas Trail.