PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Moonlight negotiations. A controversial royal marriage. Tuberculosis. In 1925, a Pinellas County agricultural community that once bore the name of Queen Victoria's cousin turned a new leaf. Now, it's celebrating its 100th birthday.
While 2025 marks Palm Harbor's centennial, the area's history goes even further back: the community of over 60,000 originally started as a single post office in 1878, when J.C. Craver moved to Florida in search of a climate to "cure his tuberculosis." The sunny weather must have done its job, because Craver later regained his health and opened the Bay St. Joseph Post Office, which became the center of the community.
By the mid-1880s, as railroad remapping started south, a new name was established—but it still wasn't Palm Harbor just yet. The area became known as Sutherland for George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, the Third Duke of Sutherland. According to a report from historian James Anthony Schnur, the duke came to the Pinellas peninsula with Lady Mary Caroline Blair on their yacht, San Peur (Without Fear), around 1885.
It was then that he made negotiations with Anson P. K. Safford by moonlight, and by 1887, the duke had built a small home near Lake Tarpon. The area eventually took on the name of Sutherland to honor the duke's presence. There was even a royal wedding of sorts when he married Mary Caroline Blair at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in 1889, which caused quite a stir back in England, considering his first wife had passed away just a few months prior.
During the 1920s land boom, the area was finally renamed to Palm Harbor and has only continued to grow. Officials started the festivities this past weekend with an exhibit at the Palm Harbor Museum, but there are still plenty of events ahead to celebrate. On Saturday, the community kick-off starts at 11 a.m. with food trucks and family-friendly activities. But head to Pop Stansell Park at 6 p.m., and you'll find fireworks, beer and wine and live music.
Find more information and events at the Palm Harbor Museum here.
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