St. Petersburg High School celebrated its centennial April 11 with a campuswide event that drew generations of alumni back to its halls. Visitors flipped through yearbooks in the Archive Room and toured the grounds while the pep band, cheerleaders, jazz band and a cappella group the Pitchforks performed on campus. Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a 1974 graduate, was among the attendees.
The Ulrich family is among the generations of Green Devils with deep ties to the school. Eleven members from four generations have attended, starting with a grandmother who taught there in 1926 and continuing through a grandson expected to graduate in 2026. Former St. Petersburg Mayor Robert Ulrich, a 1951 graduate, is among them. Four members of the Class of 1950 also returned for the April 11 event.
The school dates to 1898 but moved to its current home at 2501 Fifth Ave. N. in 1926, when the surrounding area was still cow pastures and citrus groves. Designed to echo the Mediterranean elegance of the Vinoy Hotel, the building carried a then-staggering $1 million price tag.
Its survival was not always certain. By the late 1970s, the building had fallen into disrepair and the county debated demolition. Bob Pfeiffer, a 1933 graduate, led the “Give the Devil Its Due” campaign to raise preservation funds, and the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Pinellas County Schools invested roughly $44 million in renovations in 2021.