Kissimmee follow-up

This weekend I returned to the site of some older posts to see what had changed since my initial observations. First I went to the site of the shuffleboard courts of the Kissimmee All State Tourist Club in downtown Kissimmee. The courts were long gone and a new picnic pavilion is almost completed in its place. Part of a larger plan for a new lakeside park, the shuffleboard complex was booted after decades of good times next to the Monument of States. I was surprised to see the area still closed off about a year and a half after my previous visit, with very little lake access remaining for the public. I'm not sure what happened to the members of the KAST club, but it seems like a rather disappointing situation as the park seems stuck in limbo.

In some cases, the neglect of the lakefront park has yielded beautiful results

Next I drove down 192, the tourist corridor leading to Disney. On my previous visit it was easy to see the effects of the recession and Disney's strategy to keep all of their guests on Disney property in Disney hotels. Boarded up businesses were frequent, ugly scars on this busy Osceola County roadway. This weekend I found even more businesses had fallen by the wayside and was surprised that some that some of them appeared to very recently built. In fact, a year and a half ago I noted a brand new A&W Drive-In across from the former location of Xanadu House of the Future. It appears that the Drive-In was one of the victims of the 192 recession and it too now sits vacant.

I found it fascinating that in some places the natural landscape was consuming man made structures. I pulled over at a closed miniature golf course and found it so overgrown that no part of the course was visible from the road. Next door, the Viking Motel, appearing freshly painted, sat empty as its swimming pool area flooded and and the roadside signage disintegrated. While I feel empathy for the business owners and the their former employees, it is kind of nice to see nature making her own land grab, even if it is only temporary.

This is actually the walkway to the pool area

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This sign on U.S. 441, sits in front of an overgrown empty lot, pointing at nothing but sky.

The St. Pete Shuffle

I first learned about the St. Pete Shuffle when I was trying to rally support for saving Kissimmee's ill-fated KAST Club shuffleboard courts. I had connected with Chris Kelly and Christine Page, two of the members of the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard club who were instrumental in bringing new life to the venerable St. Pete institution. They were incredibly helpful and ever since then I have wanted to see how they managed to put a new spin on a game associated with senior citizens in their golden years.

So after Thanksgiving on Anna Maria Island, my wife and I drove across the Sunshine Skyway Bridge into St. Petersburg to meet Chris and Christina and attend their weekly Friday night shuffleboard event known as the St. Pete Shuffle.

My first impression was that the shuffleboard complex was much larger than I had envisioned; I'd seen pictures of the club but in addition to the shuffleboard courts there are storage buildings, a clubhouse, restrooms and other buildings. Chess and lawn bowling clubs occupy space at the back of the property and several dance organizations and a folk festival share the facilities in the building that holds the clubhouse. This is much, much more than your typical motel concrete shuffleboard court. In fact there were too many courts for me too count. And the buildings are all historic, built at different times – some have deco details but most are in the Mediterranean Revival style that was the rage in early 20th century Florida.

The club itself was organized in 1924 and has ranged in membership from 5,000 in its heyday to between twenty and thirty before Chris and Christine got involved. Today you see broad cross sections of ages and it is exciting to see hipsters shuffling with seniors and really enjoying themselves. When it was our turn to try out the game, we were tutored by a professional shuffleboard player named Mary, who I later learned is a member of the Shuffleboard Hall of Fame! She was extremely patient and supportive and I learned that while I had played the game before, I had never played it properly.

The triangle shaped scoring area on a shuffleboard court goes from 10 points at the top, 8 points for the top two quadrants, followed by 7 each for the next two and finally minus ten for the rear quadrants (known as the "kitchen"). A shuffleboard disk touching any part of a white line gets no score, no matter what quadrant it lies in. The game is played to 75 and teams alternating going first (the last turn is called the 'hammer").

The Friday Night Shuffle is free and there are beverages, snacks and t-shirts for sale. A sound system plays music ranging from vintage tunes from the golden age of shuffleboard to contemporary alternative rock for the hipsters. It provides a great setting for a game that can be intense and competitive but most of all is really, really fun. I looked around and all the lit courts at the complex seemed to be full of shufflers.

Membership to the St. Pete Shuffleboard Club costs is only $20 a year and it allows you to have access to club facilities beyond the Friday night event.

Chris explained that the city of St. Petersburg owns the property that the club sits on but the club owns and maintains all the buildings. The city has been supportive of the club and club members have been successful at winning grants for upkeep of the property. There is a great deal of work still needing to be done to the historic structures and they hope to earn a listing on the National Register of Historic Places so more grant money will be accessible.

My wife and I agreed that the Shuffle was the highlight of our action-packed holiday weekend. In addition to being incredibly enjoyable recreation, I was very inspired that a few dedicated individuals like Chris and Christine could see the value of this aging facility and restore it to new levels of vitality through their energy, effort and vision. I am hopeful that perhaps someday I can help to preserve aging parts of Central Florida and help others see their value. And I can't wait to shuffle again!

A few shuffles left

Since my last post on Kissimmee's KAST club's shuffleboard courts, much has happened but the outcome still seems to be the same, the clubs's last day on the property is to be March 17th.

First I was contacted by a member of St. Pete's shuffleboard club, who reached out to KAST Club's president Dot Clark and got this response:

"Thank you for thinking of the KAST Club. Although the building and courts and cover are going to be demolished, the members voted to keep the club together. We're not able to say where we will meet, but hope and pray that something will turn up. Our new officers are being installed during the meeting at this time... Our club was declining in numbers and that didn't help us at all. In spite of the city situation and progress they have made, we have one member who is still fighting the city and doing all he can. Just a shame he didn't start a few years ago."

Chris from the St. Pete club, shared this with Dot, about how a group of individuals got together to preserve the Shuffleboard courts in his city:

"In 2005, when it was becoming clear that the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club property was being viewed by City 'leaders' as a development site (library, college, etc), a group of us got together. It was clear to us that the seniors at the St. Pete Club weren't able to put together a campaign to counter a proposal and frankly, with the Club size as it was, there was little chance that the City would listen.

We decided that rather than wait until the proposal came (and then laying down in front of bulldozers) we would proactively invite the community to visit and to use the facility for its intended purpose. A group of friends (artists, neighborhood activists), all in our thirties and forties sat at my dining table one Saturday and we put together every idea for public events that we could think of (art shows, concerts, food, barbeque, Fourth of July, glow in the dark shuffle, etc.) and then voted on which ideas were common priorities to try out.

It turned out that the one idea that everyone wanted to put energy into was to open the Club to the public from 6-10 (we now run 7-11), every Friday night. We call the event the St. Pete Shuffle and it has brought thousands of people, (St. Pete residents and visitors, tourists and families,) to the Club, has fed us new memberships, volunteers and publicity. Shuffle has been covered in the NY Times, Washington Post, Southern Living Magazine and lots of other media outlets.

We've done all those other ideas as well, and repeat some of them regularly. They allowed us to forge friendships with arts groups, restaurants, scout troops, a Folk Fair society, old car buffs and more.

As a result of those efforts and outreach, at some point in 2008 City of St. Petersburg 'leaders' realized that the best use of the Shuffleboard Club was... as a shuffleboard club. By this time, if a redevelopment proposal was forthcoming, the Club was in a much stronger position to respond, negotiate or raise a ruckus. Instead, the City budgeted $750,000 to take care of long deferred maintenance issues and restore the buildings last year. In November 2009 we had a formal reopening celebration.... all as a result of our Friday night 'Shuffle'.

I don't know if there's much time left to try something similar in Kissimmee, or if your members, neighbors and the surrounding community want to. It would take much the same collaboration as worked here, with Shufflers, Historic Preservationists, Artists, Neighbors and creative folks all needing to be identified quickly. If they do, I'd be glad to discuss the idea further....Florida was blessed in the last century to have residents who, together, built wonderful recreation facilities. I hope the residents in this century begin to value those grounds appropriately."

Dot responded that it was too late and that only one member was still fighting what now seems inevitable. Yesterday the National Trust for Historic Preservation did a story on its website about the loss of the courts and quoted KAST club member Gerald Lemenager stating "I'm still fighting it ... I know it won't do much good, but I'm going to keep putting my two cents in."

It's a shame we didn't know about this sooner, as we might have made a difference. Still there are great shuffleboard facilities around the state sitting vacant. Perhaps it is time for the magic of the St. Pete Shuffle to spread to other cities. Can we spark a renaissance of the game that so many enjoyed throughout the last century in the Sunshine State?

KAST Club cast out in Kissimmee

Several people I've talked to recently have been excited about watching curling in the Winter Olympics, describing it as shuffleboard on ice. Unfortunatley there don't seem to be that many people concerned about regular old shuffleboard. In a previous post, I talked about shuffleboard as a part of Florida's tourist history and I highlighted Kissimmee's KAST club. This week I was disappointed to hear that the City of Kissimmee has plans to demolish the KAST club as it remodels Lakefront Park.

I first learned of the plans from another blog and then saw a local news story on the subject. The members of the KAST club, (Kissimmee All States Tourists), seem saddened and dismayed at the prospect of being "cast" out of the home they've utilized for almost 70 years.

The City of Orlando is going through a similar situation where the park they've built at a former horse racing track is being expanded and in the process they are tossing out a charity that allows special needs kids to ride horses. Their rationale is that they will serve more people with ball fields than are served by the charity, the same argument used by the City of Kissimmee to dismiss the KAST club.

The St. Pete Shuffleboard Club has shown that shuffleboard can appeal to a wider audience, hosting weekly events with music and food that attract a younger crowd. It seems a shame that such a wonderful time capsule of Floridaina may go by the wayside for a picnic pavillion and restrooms.

Current location of the KAST Club

Plans for the renovated park showing new picnic pavilion and restrooms where the shuffleboard courts have been for almost 70 years

The KAST Club's Monument of States is adjacent to the shuffleboard courts

Construction is already underway

Image from the State Archives of Florida shows the Monument of States in the upper left corner

If you're interested in the ongoing saga of the KAST Club courts join the Save our Shuffleboard group on Facebook!

Shuffleboard in Florida

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “This Place Matter’s Contest” photo contest has chosen finalists, and one is from Florida. Christine Page’s image of the Shuffleboard Club in St. Pete is one of 12 photos chosen from over 2,000 entries, including several of my own (see recent posts.) Voting lasts until October 9, click here to register to vote for your favorite (I'm partial to Miller's Grocery.)

Here's some good info on the St. Pete Shuffleboard Club: "It's not only the world's largest shuffleboard club – we're talking more than 60 courts – it's also one of the most historic. This is where the game came of age in the first half of the 20th century: At one time, the club boasted as many as 5,000 members. Now, the facility, like the sport itself, has lost some of its luster, but it still hosts a busy slate of tournaments. Best of all, it encourages everyday folks to participate. It costs all of a buck to play (equipment provided) and club members are often around to offer a pointer or two. Summer hours vary, so it pays to check ahead to see if the club is open." - Palm Beach Post, June 3, 2007

Shuffleboard is a large part of Florida’s popular culture, as the image of snowbirds and seniors in black socks and sandals playing shuffleboard is an image that will be forever tied to our state. These images from the state archives seem to perpetuate that stereotype....

Tin Can Tourists were vacationers who came to Florida in campers in the early 20th century. Here you see shuffleboard at a typical Tin Can Tourist Camp.

More Tin Can Shuffleboard

Ever stylish shuffleboarders take the sport to a whole new glamorous level.

It's hard in this day and age to think of Shuffleboard as a spectator sport, but evidently it once was... this is St. Pete.

I'm thinking she didn't actually play in those heels...

More spectator Shuffle board in St. Pete. From the "nose bleed" seats.

Shuffleboard at Cypress Gardens...

In 1924, the Kissimmee All-States Tourist Club, or KAST Club, was organized to attract tourists to the to the Kissimmee area. This senior citizens club, helped create the nearby Monument of States. That influence is apparent on the entry to the KAST Club’s shuffleboard courts, as it is made up of some of the same stones that are used on the monument. Today this court, like the one in St. Pete, stands testament to a simpler time in Florida and both are very much places that matter today...