Who Keeps Snell Isle's Panthers on Their Corners?

In the summer of 2007, a real estate agent showing homes in the 3900 block of 51st Avenue N noticed two worn concrete panthers guarding a driveway. The words "Snell Isle" could just barely be read on one base. The other cat had fallen off its pedestal. The Tampa Bay Times reported that the pair had been taken during a high school rivalry in the 1950s and had spent the next 53 years on that driveway.

According to the Times account, when the school principal called Snell Isle to report the missing statues, residents said the panthers were already being replaced and they didn't want them back. That has been the pattern for close to a century. The panthers you pass on Snell Isle corners are less a relic of 1925 than a job the neighborhood keeps taking on again. This year the Snell Isle Property Owners Association counted 89 of them cleaned and repaired.

Snell Wanted a Foreign Note

C. Perry Snell launched Snell Isle on Oct. 15, 1925, and much of what is now the neighborhood was still under Tampa Bay at the time, according to a centennial history in The Gabber. The association's own history says Snell bought the property on April 4, 1911, and that when development started, only about 39 of the 275 planned acres sat above high tide. Getting the rest required dredging and seawalls.

Snell had traveled through Europe, riding a train across Switzerland and driving through Norway, and he wanted the island to show it. In 1927 he wrote:

"It is the memory of these beautiful scenes that encourages one to lend some romantic touch to our local scene. At Snell Isle, I am endeavouring to lend a foreign note to match the warmth and balm of our sunshine."

The Times reported that Snell put dozens of large concrete animal statues at street intersections, including lions, tigers, panthers and griffins. Some came from Europe and others were made in the United States. The Gabber's centennial piece also credits Snell's European trips as the source of the neighborhood's artwork and statuary, and it places the panthers at the intersections.

The Originals Mostly Left

The statues started disappearing almost as soon as they went up. The 2007 Times article lists three causes. Kids and thieves carried them off, and the city damaged some while installing new sewer lines. By 1980, the paper reported, the neighborhood had lost nearly all of Snell's originals.

High school students were a big part of the losses. One wave of thefts is tied to the rivalry that began after Northeast High opened in 1954 and started competing with St. Petersburg High. The two panthers on 51st Avenue N came out of that period.

When the driveway pair turned up, Bill Dudley, then president of the property owners association, told the Times he believed they were among the original statues Snell installed, which would have made them about 70 years old. He did not insist on getting them back. "We want to do what's right," Dudley told the paper. "We don't want to take something that doesn't belong to us." While police investigated, the two cats sat in an evidence room at department headquarters on First Avenue N.

Each time statues were lost, someone on the island had to decide to replace them.

The Corners Got Rebuilt on Paper First

That decision became a formal plan in 1988. The association, which represented about 600 property owners at the time, wrote the Snell Isle Street Marker and Landscape Restoration project. It called for statues bearing street names at every corner. According to a 1992 Times report, the plan went to the St. Petersburg Planning Department that summer.

The first visible piece of the plan was the trees. In August 1992, 88 Canary Island date palms, each about 6 feet tall, were planted along Snell Isle Boulevard from the Snell Isle Bridge to the former Sunset Golf and Country Club. The club was being refurbished by the developers of the Stouffer Vinoy Resort at the time. "We wanted to give a more unified definition to our main entrance," said Tim Roney, then the association's vice president.

The project was paid for through a mix of grants, neighborhood fundraising and volunteer upkeep:

The coconut palms that used to line Snell Isle Boulevard weren't thrown out. They were moved to the approach to the Shore Acres bridge, where the Times reported they were replanted. According to the city planner on the project, the grant money hired six small businesses to buy, plant and move the trees.

The Entrance Park Took a Hit in 2013

The entrance park holds pieces that were never meant to sit on a street corner. The Tampa Bay Times described them in 2013: two marble female figures from a collection called The Four Seasons, carved by an Italian artist in the early 1900s, along with a griffin bench and a memorial to the Snell family. That June, someone covered them in black paint and graffiti.

The cleanup went fast. Patch reported that within days most of the paint was off the statues and the memorial, though faint outlines were still visible. The response matched the 1950s and the 1988 plan. Damage happens, and the neighborhood fixes it.

The Anniversary Year's Repair List

In the year it celebrated Snell Isle's 100th anniversary, the association took on that work at the largest scale yet. Founded in 1938 to protect Snell's vision for the island, SIPOA runs on annual donations from residents. The association's site lists these as its 2026 results:

• 89 panthers cleaned and repaired
• The South Entrance fountain restored, with cleaning and repairs to the fountain, electrical and lighting, plus painted walls, new plants and trimming
• 40 planters cleaned, repaired and replanted
• Holiday lighting reimagined, after the display went dark in 2025
• The neighborhood's first Landscaping Expo, held in October 2026
• Work with the City of St. Petersburg on Parkway beautification and on burying utility lines
• A celebration of Snell Isle's 100th anniversary at the Snell Isle Women's Club

The 89 panthers stand out against the record. Snell's originals were nearly gone by 1980. Since then the association has added the street-name statues from the 1988 plan and kept repairing them, and the island now has more cats to look after than most residents could probably count.

The association's list of plans for 2027 and beyond also loops back to 1992. Its first item is "Parkway beautification including Canary Island Palm solution." Those are the palms residents agreed to care for 34 years ago. The rest of the plans include a "Welcome to Snell Isle" sign at the north bridge, more statuary and panther enhancements, and work on the pocket parks. All of these are planned projects, paid for the same way as the 1992 work, with neighbors raising money for neighborhood upkeep.

Where the Neighbors Gather Next

The association also runs the neighborhood calendar, and several upcoming dates are close to the statuary. Santa's visit takes place on the Parkway itself.

The association's board meets the first Wednesday of every month from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Two bigger events take place just south, along the downtown waterfront. Shopapalooza brings more than 350 local vendors to Vinoy Park on Nov. 28 and 29 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It adds Dockside Sessions this year, and Bayshore Drive in front of the park closes to cars during the festival. The Downtown St. Pete Lighted Christmas Boat Parade starts at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 12. Suggested viewing spots include the Vinoy yacht basin and North Shore Park.

When a client asks about a Snell Isle home, I tell them about the corner statues along with the seawall and the dock. The neighborhood has spent 100 years taking care of both. If you want to see the panthers, the restored South Entrance fountain and the waterfront streets around them, Brad Bess can show you around. Book Your Tour.