In June of 1859, on one of his stops along the intercoastal waterway in search of fresh water and safe anchorage, Captain Lowe made landfall in what was then the virtually uninhabited Pinellas peninsula. 

So where was Lake Largo and where did it go? Visit the Largo City Hall or drive along East Bay Drive at Highland Avenue and you will be in old Lake Largo. As Largo developed along the path of the new railroad, the city began to grow in all directions even to the east toward the lake. Developers eyed the area of the lake and saw new potential uses

Over a century ago, in about 1905 to be exact, a young nineteen-year-old by the name of John Gainey left his hometown of Brazil, Indiana and headed south to the land of sunshine and orange blossoms! Why he came to Largo, we don’t know for sure. Was it the fact the newly incorporated town of 291 residents needed a carpenter to help with the building boom?

Long before Leslie Estep and family arrived in Largo, there had been a lumber business sitting alongside the railroad tracks at Third Street and Fifth Avenue NW serving the needs of the growing community. The earliest lumber operation located on that site is believed to be a sawmill owned by John S. Hussey.

What was the one place in our hometown which was frequented more than anything else by Largo’s teens? Why, the Milk Bar, of course! There wasn’t a Friday night that went by but what you and your friends didn’t pile into that old Chevy after a football game and head to Thomas’ Milk Bar for a juicy hamburger and thick chocolate shake!

Countless men and women from Largo have served in the armed forces through the years, beginning with the Civil War, and continuing until the present day, made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives for our country.

It all started about August 27, 1918, the arrival of influenza in the United States, that is. Three cases of the illness were first discovered in Boston that day; within ten days, the base hospital and infirmaries at the Army's Camp Devens outside the city were overwhelmed with thousands of sick trainees. The country's best medical teams were brought in to assess the outbreak.

Once upon a time ... more than 200 years ago ... the barren lands of Florida were void of humans except for tribes of indigenous people who lived alongside the key deer, black bears, gators, Florida panthers, and the many creatures that called Florida 'home'.

She was just a young girl of seventeen when she arrived in Largo with her family in 1925 but over the next seventy years Sadie Crawford Johnson spent a good portion of her time chronicling the lives and legends of her adopted hometown and championing for its preservation.

Majestic McKay Creek flows from its beginnings in mid-Pinellas County toward the bay in a graceful ebb of an ever-changing environment. At some points along the creek, the stately herons stand their ever-watchful guard for a next meal; Florida alligators roam along the banks; and as you approach the bay, docks and boats stand ready for easy access to fun on the water.