Tarpon Springs
the Symi Visitor | Spring 2009
Tarpon Springs Divers from a few Dodecanese Islands make Tarpon Springs the “Sponge Capital of the World” By Symi standards, Tarpon Springs is a very new city. It is located in the State of Florida, the southern most State on the eastern coast of the United States. The east coast of the State touches the Atlantic Ocean, whereas the west coast of Florida buttresses the Gulf of Mexico. The first people to settle in the location of Tarpon Springs on the west coast of Florida arrived in 1876; they were A.W. Ormond and his daughter, Mary. They built a cabin near Spring Bayou. (The site of the annual Epiphany diving event). George Inness, an American landscape artist, discovered the beauty in the Bayou. He and his son, George, Jr., painted the scenes found in the area. Mary Ormond liked the great fish that inhabited the Bayou and that leapt into the air and sprayed water. In 1879, she officially named the small settlement Tarpon Springs; a misnomer since the fish was mullet, not tarpon! Today on the Florida west coast, smoked mullet is a traditional dish. One year later in 1880, Hamilton Disston, a wealthy manufacturer of saws, bought four million acres of land in the central west coast of Florida from the Governor for 25 cents an acre. This saved the state from bankruptcy. Included in this purchase was Tarpon Springs. In 1884, a post office was established in Tarpon Springs, and soon the railway arrived and a depot was built to accommodate passengers and freight. Thanks to the efforts and investments of Hamilton Disston, Tarpon Springs, the region, with its series of bayous feeding into the Gulf of Mexico became an exclusive winter resort for wealthy Northerners. In 1887 with a population of 52 residents, Tarpon Springs was incorporated. John Cheney, a promoter associated with Disston, discovered that harvesting the sponges growing in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico could make money. Although Tarpon Springs was successful as a tourist resort, it wasn’t long before the sponge industry became the community’s most important industry. By 1890, the sponge industry was firmly established in Tarpon Springs. The Cheney Sponge Company sold almost a million dollars worth of sponges that year. The first Greek immigrants arrived to this city
during the 1880s, when they were hired to work as divers in the growing sponge harvesting industry. In 1905, John Cocoris introduced the technique of sponge diving to Tarpon Springs that used rubberized diving suits and helmets. Cocoris recruited Greek sponge divers from the Dodecanese islands of Kalymnos, Halki and Symi Greece. Using these diving suits they significantly increased the yields from harvesting sponges. By 1905, over 500 Greek sponge divers were at work using 50 boats. The early sponge divers created a need at the docks for places to eat and for the boat crews, and as news of the industry spread, people came to the docks to see the sponges. As a result, shops opened so people could buy the sponges and other souvenirs. In 1907 sponge buyers created the Sponge Exchange. A building with a courtyard in which each sponge diver could store his catch while awaiting the auctions that took place twice a week. With the perfection of deep-sea diving equipment, the dollar amount of sponge harvests continued to increase. Divers were able to go deeper into the sea and for longer lengths of time. For 30 years, the sponge industry was the largest industry in Florida—larger than citrus or tourism. Tarpon Springs prospered through the 1920s and 1930s. Around this period, the sponge fleet averaged around 200 vessels. By 1936, Tarpon Springs was recognized as the “sponge capital of the world” and more than 2000 Greeks had moved to Tarpon Springs from the Dodecanese islands. The sponge industry in Tarpon Springs was growing to its maximum. But that abruptly changed in the 1940s; a red tide algae bloom occurred in 1947, wiping out the sponge fields in that region of the Gulf of Mexico, most of the sponge boats and divers switched to fishing and shrimping (prawns) for a livelihood. The city then converted most of its sponge-related activities, especially the warehouses where they were sold, into tourist attractions. The Sponge Docks are now mostly shops, restaurants, and museums dedicated to the memory of Tarpon Springs’ earlier industry. Most sponges sold on the docks are now imports: Relatively few sponges are harvested from the area, although attempts have been made in recent years to restart local sponge harvesting. In the late 1980s the sponge industry made a comeback Led by local businessman George Billiris (whose wife is Mayor of Tarpon Springs—Symi Visitor March 2008), and in the fall of 2007 a record harvest of sponges by
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Boosting Tourism in the Sister Cities: Symi and Tarpon Springs Tourism is down throughout the globe, and this year, Tarpon Springs was no different. George Billiris, sponge merchant, gift shop owner, operator of the tour boat St. Nicholas, (and husband of the Mayor Beverly Billiris) has seen a lot in all his decades living and working at the Sponge Docks. In 60 years working at the docks, however, he has never seen tourism and business so bad. Seeking to foster a turnaround, Billiris is putting together a marketplace event at the Sponge Docks. For the first time since 1924 the boat he operates, which takes tourists on a simulated sponge diving trip, is staying tied up during the week. The boat now only sails on weekends, if there are enough tourists, and for special trips. For the last several months only a handful of visitors have been walking along Dodecanese Boulevard, the main street of the riverfront tourist district. Summer traditionally is the slowest time of the year for the local tourist economy, but it has
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The Never Ending Love of Symi and its Patron Saint Although fame and fortunes have come to many of the people of Symi in other lands, the love of Symi and Archangel Michael is obvious in the third generation American teenager’s remark, upon his arrival in Symi’s harbor. “I have never been in Symi but I feel like I have always lived here from the stories I have heard.” When the sponge fleet left so did all the other industries. The inhabitance of Symi went to Rhodes, Piraeus, Egypt, the Congo, Australia and the Unites States of America. In the Untitled States the Sarris and Xynidis families settled in settled in St. Augustine, Florida where they continued their families trade; ship building. The Arfaras, Galolurakis, Kantonis, Kat-
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