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Tampa Diary: The Thunderbird Hotel on Treasure Island

Photo by Yours Truly.
Click to see it at full size.

I was on Treasure Island Thursday night. Yup, there’s a place called Treasure Island here in the Tampa Bay area, and it’s pretty much a resort town. According to Wikipedia, the place got its name from landholders who tried to boost property sales by “burying and then pretending to discover a couple of wooden chests on the beach around 1915”. They claimed that the chests they “found” were filled with treasure, and you can probably guess what locals started calling the place soon afterward.

Photo by Yours Truly.
Click to see it at full size.

Wikipedia also reports that Treasure Island saw a boom in the post-WWII years, which may explains why many of the buildings look as though they belong in exterior shots from Mad Men. There’s something fascinating about late 1950s/early 1960s building design and signage, and the best example of this on Treasure Island is the Thunderbird Hotel.

Photo by Yours Truly.
Click to see it at full size.

I couldn’t resist taking some pictures as we drove by. Enjoy the photos, and be sure to visit the hotel’s site!

Photo by Yours Truly.
Click to see it at full size.

Photo from the Thunderbird Hotel’s photo gallery.
Click to see it at full size.

Joey deVilla

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  • That sign makes me flashback to the Indian Drive-In that used to be here in Phoenix, AZ. Mom & Dad would load the whole family into the car along with drinks and snacks, and many a sultry summer night was spent watching double-bills of movies that ranged from great to terrible. The backside of the -huge- movie screen, facing the main street, had a great multi-colored Indian-head-with-war-bonnet neon display.

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