Tarpon Springs - City of Tarpon Springs

• Located In: Pinellas County
• Population: 21,003 (Source: Pinellas County)
• Community Type: Residential, business and tourist
• Size: 9 square miles
• Zip Codes:
• Government: Commission and city manager/mayor and four commissioners elected to three-year staggered terms.

Samuel E. Hope, the first private landholder in the area, purchased land on the north side of the Anclote River in 1864. In 1876, A.W. Ormond and his daughter, Mary, became the first settlers in what is now Tarpon Springs.

Anson P.K. Safford arrived in 1882 to oversee the investments of wealthy Florida land owner Hamilton Disston. Safford built a school and his sister, Dr. Mary Jane Safford, opened a practice in Tarpon Springs, becoming the first female physician in Florida.

The town had grown to about 300 residents when, in 1887, Tarpon Springs became the first incorporated city on the Pinellas peninsula.

The Leepa-Rattner Museum, located in the Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg College

, boasts a permanent collection of fine art and hosts many special exhibitions.

The Tarpon Springs Cultural Center and the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center offer a wide array of enriching performances featuring both local entertainers as well as nationally and internationally recognized artists.

Tarpon Springs hosts many community events which draw crowds from all over the Tampa Bay area. One of these is the largest Epiphany celebration outside of Greece which takes place on January 6.

• Costas, 521 Athens St.
• Hellas, 785 Dodecanese Blvd.
• Mama’s Greek Cuisine, 735 Dodecanese Blvd., No. 40
• Plaka Restaurant, 769 Dodecanese Blvd.
• Snookers Grill, 606 North Pinellas Ave.

There’s a wealth of history in Tarpon Springs, a community unlike any other in the Tampa Bay area. From the arrival of the railroad and the building of the Anclote lighthouse in 1887 to the inferno that leveled the city’s business core in 1894, the city’s tale is a rollercoaster ride of accomplishments and setbacks.

More than any other event, though, the event that shaped the city’s destiny was the founding of the commercial sponge industry in 1890. Settlers had discovered sponges in the Florida Keys as early as the 1820s. A turtle fisherman from Key West stumbled upon the west coast sponge beds near the mouth of the Anclote River decades later, in 1873, just as the area was beginning to develop. John Cheyney had the foresight and resources to establish the Anclote River and Rock Island Sponge Company.

In no time, spongers converged on the area, sponge packing houses were built in the city and sponge presses were installed. By 1900, Tarpon Springs was considered the largest sponge port in the United States. Greek immigrants expanded and refined the Tarpon Springs sponge industry when John Corcoris, a sponge buyer from New York, brought 500 Greek divers from Kalymnos, Halki, Sumi, Hydra, Spetse, Aegena and other islands.

The economic boom continued well into the 20th century. It wasn’t until the late 1920s with the collapse of real estate values and the onset of the Great Depression that Tarpon Springs’ growth slowed. More devastating to the sponge industry, though, was a blight that struck the sponge beds in 1938.

Sponging has been replaced by tourism as the city’s main industry. Tarpon Springs, with its Greek heritage and colorful history, draws many visitors with its Sponge Docks, Greek cuisine, historic district with art and antique shops and charming Victorian style neighborhoods.

Aside from the annual Epiphany event, Tarpon Springs also hosts many other annual events, including a Greek Independence Day Festival, annual Arts and Crafts Festival, Taste of Tarpon Springs Food and Art Festival, Gavel & Grapes (an arts, antiques and wine tasting event), the Peter T. Assimack Memorial Fishing Tournament and the Downtown Tarpon Springs Festival of the Arts.