...the 1926 Fort Harrison...

And with the fast-track development taking place in Pinellas County, local government officials were pressed to provide more and more improvements. In 1923, a bond election for $2,863,000 for bridges and roads passed. From 1924 through 1926, 12 special road bridge districts were created in the county.

The boom continued through the decade, only peaking in 1926.

With the building boom, the word went out to all corners of the country that big profits could be made in Florida real estate. The 1920s quickly became the first heyday of the real estate speculator in Clearwater and the state.

The “binder boys” became legendary for the way they did business: fast turnover of property and quick profits made possible by a “binder fee,” a nominal fee “paid by the prospective buyer on the promise of a down payment to be made perhaps a month later. The profit would be reaped by the simple process of trading binders, which might pass through a dozen or more hands before the initial down payment was made,” according to Sanders.

...and other landmarks of that era still stand today, restored and enjoying new life in downtown Clearwater.

The speculators sparked development in Clearwater and elsewhere in Pinellas County, including streets, sidewalks, and other improvements that flanked the emergence of Mediterranean revival and frame vernacular-style architecture.

A notable achievement of the era was construction of Clearwater’s first “skyscraper,” the Fort Harrison Hotel, completed in 1926. In the spring of that same year, Clearwater Beach, officially named in 1924 by an act of the state legislature, also enjoyed the fruits of the Florida boom when construction began on the 250-room Mandalay Hotel on the north end of the beach.