Pinellas County is located on the west central coast of the state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 916,542. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Clearwater is the county seat, and St. Petersburg is the largest city and the largest city in Florida that is not a county seat.
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, United States, northwest of Tampa and St. Petersburg. To the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and to the southeast lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 107,685. Clearwater is the county seat of Pinellas County and is the smallest of the three principal cities in the Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater metropolitan area, most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area.
St. Pete Beach is a coastal city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. Known as a tourist destination, St. Pete Beach was formed from the towns of Pass-a-Grille, Belle Vista, St. Petersburg Beach and unincorporated Pinellas County. At the time of its incorporation in 1957, its name was St. Petersburg Beach. On March 9, 1994, locals voted to officially change the name to the shorter version of St. Pete Beach, to distinguish it from the city of St. Petersburg a few miles to the east. The population was 9,346 at the 2010 census.
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater inflow into the bay is the Hillsborough River, which flows into Hillsborough Bay in downtown Tampa. Many other smaller rivers and streams also flow into Tampa Bay, resulting in a large watershed area.
St. Petersburg College (SPC) is a public college in Pinellas County, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and one of the institutions in the system designated a "state college," as it offers a greater number of four-year bachelor's degrees than traditional two-year community colleges focused on associate degrees. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and enrolled about 29,000 students in the fall of 2018.
Timeline of Pinellas County, Florida history.
The Bayside Bridge is a girder bridge in Pinellas County which crosses over the northwesternmost end of Tampa Bay, connecting Clearwater, Florida and Largo, Florida. Construction began in the early 1990s and was completed in the summer of 1993, officially opening for traffic on June 2 of that year. Originally conceived in the 1970s as the 49th Street Bridge, a toll-levied part of the 12-mile (19 km) Pinellas Parkway, the current six-lane twin-span bridge provides direct, unmitigated access from eastern Clearwater to St. Petersburg/Clearwater International Airport by connecting McMullen Booth Road to 49th Street North and also serves as a bypass for heavily congested US 19.
Countryside High School, also known as CHS, is a public high school located in Clearwater, Florida. Established in 1980, it is a part of the Pinellas County Schools system, and is one of the larger schools in Pinellas County. It draws students from Dunedin, suburban east Clearwater, Safety Harbor, and Oldsmar.
The Clearwater Memorial Causeway is a four-lane road between downtown Clearwater and Clearwater Beach, Florida, and includes a fixed-span bridge across the Intracoastal Waterway. It carries the State Road 60 designation and is known for its greenways and pedestrian walkways and elegant bridge appearance and structure. The road is also a major evacuation route during hurricane season.
Bayside High School is a public alternative secondary school in Clearwater, Florida, United States. The school is the first long-term alternative school in the Pinellas County School District and is a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Gabriel "Gabe" Cazares was a mayor of Clearwater, Florida, a Pinellas County commissioner, a civil rights advocate, and a critic of the Church of Scientology. He died September 29, 2006 in Clearwater at the age of 86.
St. John's Episcopal Church is an historic church in Tallahassee, Florida. It is located at 211 North Monroe Street. On August 10, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Fred Marquis Pinellas Trail is a rail trail in Pinellas County, Florida. It stretches from Tarpon Springs in the north to St. Petersburg in the south, passing through the towns of Palm Harbor, Dunedin, Belleair, Clearwater, Largo, Seminole, South Pasadena, and Gulfport. It is utilized for walking, jogging, and cycling. Some trail users are able to commute to work using the Pinellas Trail instead of a motor vehicle.
The Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA) in Florida which extends from Marco Island on the south, to Brooksville on the north, and inland to Plant City, Arcadia and LaBelle on the east. As part of the ECUSA, the diocese is a constituent member of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Shawn Lonsdale was a videographer and prominent critic of the Church of Scientology. He resided in Clearwater, Florida, and regularly videotaped members of Scientology coming and going from church activities in Clearwater. Lonsdale had initially intended to do a photography project on homeless people in Clearwater, but after an experience at a City Council meeting, he began to research Scientology. Lonsdale got into an argument with a Scientologist at the City Council meeting, and the Scientologist followed him home and the next day Lonsdale observed a van waiting for two hours outside his home. After researching the Church of Scientology on critical websites, he decided to expose information about the organization. He established a website, and filmed video footage of Scientologists going about activities in Clearwater, and aired edited footage on a local Public-access television cable TV station. After getting into a physical altercation with a Scientologist while filming, the Scientologist was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery, but was later released and the charges were dropped.
The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Spokane, Washington, is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane. Three Spokane parishes, All Saints Cathedral, St. Peter's, and St. James, merged on October 20, 1929 to form the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist. Construction began on the present cathedral four years previous in 1925 and was structurally completed in less than a generation under the supervision of founding architect Harold C. Whitehouse of the Spokane firm of Whitehouse & Price. It is located in the Rockwood neighborhood, south of downtown.
Christ Cathedral is the cathedral church for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Kansas. It is located in Salina, Kansas, United States, and has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2010.
The Orange Belt Railway was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad established in 1885 by Russian exile Peter Demens in Florida. It was one of the longest narrow gauge railroads in the United States at the time of its completion in 1888, with a mainline 152 miles (245 km) in length between Sanford and St. Petersburg. It carried citrus, vegetables, and passengers; and it interchanged with two standard gauge lines: the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway at Lake Monroe, and the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad at Lacoochee.
A special election for Florida's 13th congressional district was held March 11, 2014, to elect a member of the United States House of Representatives, following the death of incumbent Republican Congressman Bill Young on October 18, 2013. Primary elections were held on January 14, 2014. Young, who had already announced that he would not be running for re-election in 2014, was re-elected in 2012 with 57 percent of the vote. With 100% of the precincts reporting, David Jolly was declared the winner of the special election.
The Clearwater Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. The line begins just east of downtown Tampa in Gary and heads north through some of Tampa's suburban neighborhoods. In Sulphur Springs, the Clearwater Subdivision turns and runs west though Oldsmar, where it crosses Tampa Bay. It briefly shifts south running through Safety Harbor, and then heads west again to Clearwater. In Clearwater, it turns southeast, running through Largo and Pinellas Park before terminating at Fifth Avenue North in St. Petersburg near Tropicana Field. The distance from Gary to St. Petersburg along the line is 48.6 miles (78.2 km). At the line's north end it continues from the Tampa Terminal Subdivision and at its south end the track comes to an end.
