Hello and welcome to Episode Forty Eight of Page Turn: the Largo Public Library Podcast. I'm your host, Hannah!
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The English Language Transcript can be found below
But as always we start with Reader's Advisory!
The Reader's Advisory for Episode Forty Eight is Tripping Arcadia by Kit Mayquist. If you like the sound of Tripping Arcadia you should also check out: The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss, Plain Bad Heroines by Emily Danforth, and The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas.
Bonus segment my personal favorite Goodreads list Tripping Arcadia is on is 2022 Releases I Might Read
Happy Reading Everyone
Today’s Library Tidbit is a history tidbit! More specifically a very brief history of Largo ending with a brief history of the land the current library building sits on.
Largo is on the unseeded lands of the Tocoboga and Seminole people. When the Spanish landed in the 1500s at first the traded with the Native population and then proceeded to commit genocide in the name of conquest. By the 1700s the Tocoboga had been virtually annihilated as a people, leaving the Seminole people as the remaining dominate tribe in the area. However, due to war against the Spanish and the English and White Americans the Seminole people were never able to firmly establish in Pinellas County. You can go back to listen to episode 28 of Page Turn to learn more!
During the Seminole Wars white settlers came to Pinellas County and began homesteading. Some names you may recognize include McMullen, Lowe, Belcher, and Taylor. Several of their houses have been moved to Heritage Village to preserve the history of the county. The families that settled mid-Pinellas all came to farm the land. Discovering an area that could sustain citrus crops, cattle, as well as, provided ample fish and other meat through hunting.
The railroad arrived in Pinellas County in 1888. Prior to this the area had been called Luluville, so named after a 500-acre lake called Lake Tolulu. This lake was believed to have been named by John Gideon Blitch after his daughter Lulu. However, this is possibly apocryphal as I can find few sources, and much is on hearsay. This lake was only known as Lake Tolulu for a few years as it had been renamed Lake Largo by 1888. Once the railroad arrived this area was named Largo after the lake.
With the railroad arriving Largo and the surrounding areas increased in size. While St. Pete grew into an urban city attracting tourists to its hotels and beach, Largo focused on farming and citrus packing. Largo continued to increase in population fairly steadily through the years. Leading to more demand for land.
Leading to, in the early 1900s, a major push in the state of Florida to drain away all the fresh water in the entire state, who needs that right? Most people in Florida will know of the push to drain the Everglades lead by Jennings and Broward, but that push can also be felt in Pinellas County.
Between 1915 and 1917 canals and drainage ditches were dug to drain Lake Largo. And they succeeded! What was once a major source of freshwater, not only for the human population but also for farming and fishing, had been drained into the bayou. What was left behind was great farming land. As the Largo Sentinel said in 1918:
“While it was a pleasing picture before the drainage work … it is now a much more pleasing picture when one looks out over the hammock lands now in cultivation. … This large tract of reclaimed land shows what drainage is worth to (the acreage east of Largo) which has always been considered practically worthless.”
My favorite part of this decision? By the late 1940s, less than 30 years later, residents of the area had realized that turning all of their freshwater to saltwater had been a mistake and created Lake Seminole to replace Lake Largo.
The land the lake was drained for was used as crop ...
