Belleair
The Town of Belleair, Florida, is a municipality located in Pinellas County on Florida's west coast, bordered on the north by the City of Clearwater, on the east, by the City of Largo, on the south, by the city of Belleair Bluffs, and on its west, by Clearwater Harbor and barrier islands that contain some of the best beaches in the state.
The town government is a council-manager form of government, consisting of a town council of five elected officials, one of whom serves as mayor, and an appointed manager. The council and mayor serve as the legislative or policy making body for the town government, approve its annual budget, and all the local laws and ordinances that define how the town operates. The day-to-day administration of the town is the responsibility of the town manager and his/her staff, who implement town policies and deliver services to the residents.
HISTORY
In the 1890’s, railroad magnate Henry B. Plant constructed his showpiece hotel on a high bluff south of Clearwater, complete with a railroad siding for the private cars of his wealthy winter patrons.
The Belleview Hotel had its grand opening in January 1897. Its location was on a peninsula west of Tampa Bay which was to become Pinellas County in 1912. Guests at the Belleview enjoyed the amenities of regal, rustic living; yachting on Clearwater Bay, horseback riding in the piney woods south of the hotel; golfing, tennis, skeet shooting and bicycling.
The Belleview’s original nine-hole golf course with sand greens had grown to two, 18 hole courses with Florida’s first grass greens by World War I. In 1920, the hotel was purchased from the Plant Investment Company by John McEntee Bowman, international sportsman and owner of the Biltmore chain of hotels. Hence the beginning of the new name Belleview Biltmore Hotel.
Directly to the north of the hotel, a casino added zest to the life of the snowbirds and hotel guests, operating until the mid 1940s.
The good life at the seasonal Belleview Biltmore naturally led to the desire among some guests to live in this pleasant place year-round. Some of Belleair’s first homes were constructed on North Indian Rocks Road, overlooking the Belleview’s golf course, and still stand today.
This neighborhood developed and gradually moved south, resisting annexation moves by the City of Clearwater. In 1925 the Town of Belleair was incorporated and noted town planner John Nolen was hired to lay out the streets that constitute most of Belleair today.
The grandiose plans of the early residents crashed with the stock market in 1929 and the end of the Florida Land Boom. In the early 1930’s, the town defaulted on more than $1 million of improvement bonds and the beautiful streets behind the bluff on the bay were rapidly reclaimed by weeds and undergrowth.
Following WWII, most of the land south of the Belleview Biltmore, including the never finished Pelican (now Belleview Biltmore) Golf Course, was purchased by two companies owned by the late E. W. Hallett. The massive cleanup to restore the town resulted in few land sales, leaving Belleair with its constant population of 300 pioneer souls.
In 1944, Mrs. Georgine Shillard-Smith, noted patron of the arts, donated seven acres of land to create the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, an important regional resource in the creative arts. Due to the growth of both the town and the art center, the center relocated its facility in 1999 to the middle of Pinellas County – in the midst of the new botanical gardens.
The 1950’s saw the rebirth of the town with new construction bringing the population to approximately 2,200 by 1955. Young postwar professionals discovered the community and civic leaders established strong recreation programs, the sewage system, an expanded water system and the present Town Hall Building.
The next large growth in the town took place in the late 1960s to early 1970s when U.S. Steel purchased the land in front of the Hotel and the Island to the west of the hotel. A large community of condominiums was constructed and resulted in boosting the town’s population to approximately 4,000.
Fortunately, far-sighed residents and officials had set aside land for the town’s beautiful system of parks and paths, while elected officials created a strong set of codes to enhance and preserve the quality way of life we enjoy today.
The Town of Belleair is now a residential community of approximately 4,100 people, containing the historic Belleview Biltmore Hotel, three eighteen hole golf courses, and several commercial businesses and professional offices.
Mayor: Gary H. Katica
belleair.govoffice.com