Post #571423 by JonPez on Mon, Jan 10, 2011 8:29 AM

My father retired a few years back after being an architect in the Pinellas County area of Florida for almost 40 years. Most of the places he worked on were school renovations and some restaurants from what I could recall. I have been able to find a few postcards of some of the places he designed (such as the Kapok Tree Inn in Madiera Beach, the Chief Charley's restaurants and a few churches) and I wanted to give them to him as a gift. I wasn't sure of how many places he designed so I asked him if he could recall them (so I could secretly buy up some memorabilia for him).
He rattled off some names of places that I knew of, and then he said "and that Tahitian hotel up near Tarpon Springs". My jaw dropped. "The Tahitian Motor Lodge?" I stammered back. "Yep, that and the Tahitian Gardens nearby". I was floored. He didn't recall much, other than the project was one of the first he worked on with his new partners. I asked him if he knew where they got the tikis and decorations from, and he just said they came from a California company that had a a catalog. He couldn't remember the name, but when I mentioned Oceanic Arts, he said that sounded familiar.
Looking back, I remember now there was a small scale model of the place in his firm's front lobby and I used to love to look at the thatched roofs on it, but I was very young (probably 3-4 years old) and never made the connection until he mentioned it.
Unfortunately, most everything was thrown out when the company folded and everyone retired. No blueprints or renderings survived.
I have since purchased some photos for him that were in a newspaper archive that show the buildings during the construction phase and thought I should share them here...

dated June 16, 1969

Entrance, dated August 13, 1969

Tahitian Gardens "Handcraft Huts", dated June 6, 1970

The cafeteria at Tahitian Gardens, dated June 21, 1969

Closeup of tiki outside cafeteria

Closeup of tiki on wall of cafeteria