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Funky Homes And Kindred Spirits

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By B.C. MANION | The Tampa Tribune,

Published: November 2, 2007

GULFPORT "Brave" merchants, visionary artists and people desperate for homes with personality chased away the drug dealers and vandals.

In little more than a decade, they rebuilt this historic waterfront city, reclaiming and creating one of the Bay area's most eclectic assortments of homes.

At Reggie Evans', a massive oak grows right through the middle of the kitchen, and the back yard opens onto a wide view of Boca Ceiga Bay.

Mary O'Malley's ranch home features a tropical scene conjured by artist Keith Stillwagon in place of the usual garage door.

Those are two stops on today's fourth annual Pink Flamingo Home Tour of 13 houses and two bed-and-breakfasts in the community's marina district. The oldest home on the tour, owned by Carol D'Alessandro and Sharon Lardieri, is a 1920s Mediterranean called Journey's End.

It boasts an open Italian marble shower, a vintage slipper bathtub, antique iron work, hand-hewn ceiling beams and a free-form lagoon pool.

Those who love unusual vintage furnishings will want to be sure to stop in at Gerry O'Regan and Bob Brand's home on Clam Bayou. They have a working 1917 Wurlitzer Nickelodeon, a 1920s marble soda fountain, a Stella music box made in the late 1890s and a sofa that once belonged to the Vanderbilts.

The tour is designed to encourage people to visit Gulfport, a municipality of 12,500 people and less than 3 square miles on the southern edge of Pinellas County's mainland. It got its start shortly after the Civil War, says Dolly Tickell, a volunteer with the chamber of commerce.

Putting on the tour is a huge community effort, with about 100 volunteers set to help out. They do it to show off their home and to raise money for their chamber, an all-volunteer organization save for the executive director.

Gulfport has made great gains since Tickell and her fiancée, Glenn Suyker, moved here a dozen years ago, she says.

"It was really rough. There was vandalism. There was drug trafficking. The properties were just run down," she says.

"We had some very brave merchants who came in and started opening restaurants and arts and crafts shops. The artists, in the very, very beginning, had a great deal to do with helping bring people downtown."

Now there are restored bungalows and revived Cape Cods, Colonials and Mediterraneans. People took a chance, Tickell says, and that changed Gulfport.

"Kudos to everybody who came before me. There were a lot of brave people, and they had their hammers going."

The sounds of buzz saws and hammers are still common; the work isn't finished. But Gulfport has changed, Tickell says.

"It's becoming a very tight-knit community, with neighbor looking out for neighbor."

Reporter B.C. Manion can be reached at (813) 259-7150 or bmanion@tampatrib.com.

GULFPORT TOUR

Gulfport's fourth annual Pink Flamingo Home Tour includes 13 marina district homes and two bed and breakfasts. Restaurants will offer Pink Flamingo specials, and shops will be giving Pink Flamingo discounts. The Southeast Catamaran boat race will be under way in Boca Ceiga Bay.

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today

WHERE: Pick up map at the Gulfport Historical Museum, 5301 28th Ave. S., Gulfport. Free trolley and bus rides will be available, or you can tour on your own.

ADMISSION: $10

INFORMATION: (727) 344-3711; www.GulfportChamberofCommerce.com

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