Tiki Gardens, Indian Rocks Beach/Indian Shores, FL (restaurant)

Cool color photo of Tiki Gardens entrance.

And a hula dancer on top of Tiki!

DC

I’ve been exploring Newspapers looking at various old Tiki places. 



One pathway led me to look at Tiki Gardens in Florida. This thread has some really great items posted.

The archives only went back so far.. so I didn’t see the actual beginning - when the Signal House opened. However, on June 16, 1961, I found ads for the “new” Tiki Gardens as a free add-on attraction.

Tampa Bay Times - 6/16/1961

It seems that the Signal House had already shown to be profitable, at least enough so that they could add the gardens.
 Just the list of various shops within the Signal House makes one’s imagination light up. The Oriental Room, Basket Mart, Kontidi Room, Driftwood Room, China Room, Shell Patio and exotic Polynesian Room.

Tampa Tribune - 6/20/1961

Here are a couple additional articles about the Tiki Gardens coming to Pinellas County.

Tampa Tribune - 6/27/1961

Tampa Tribune - 7/4/1961

According to this article, the Tikis were designed by Gordon Keith. Tampa Bay Times - 8/7/1961

As is the case, scans of newspapers seem to vary in their quality. Hopefully enough value is gained by simply learning the facts of things that happened.

So, I thought I would add some additional items I’ve discovered from old newspapers. I hope someone else enjoys looking at these things as well.

Next up - the Tiki Torches weren't the only things burning .. . .

Things seem to have been going great with the Tiki Gardens and Signal House. Here’s an ad from 1961 touting the “double header” attraction.

Sadly, on the night of May 9th, 1963; a fire broke out in the Signal House. In the panic to put out the fire, one of the volunteers even crashed his vehicle! Tampa Bay Times, May 10, 1963

The locals came out to take a look at the damage. When asked, Frank Byers said he would not rebuild. However his friends knew he would. Tampa Bay Times, May 11, 1963

Within just a few days, this article announces that rebuilding had already started. All the burned merchandise was dumped out back as fill.. who knows what is still buried there! Tampa Bay Times, May 20, 1963

By September construction was heavily underway and things were looking up for Tiki Gardens. According to the article, the new place would be patterned after the International Marketplace in Hawaii. The Bradenton Herald September 9, 1963

[ Edited by SBJiminyC on 2026-01-26 05:46:02 ]

Great research. Thanks for sharing

Ditto! Thanks - I really enjoy this stuff!

Glad a few others are also enjoying these old Newspaper clippings.

Here's some more...

Rebuilding from the Fire

In the rebuilding efforts after the fire, this article from March 3, 1964 seems to indicate that they opened the Gardens area first. Tampa Bay Times March 13, 1964

As they neared completion of the shops, Tiki Gardens was preparing to host the “Queen of the Holiday Isles” Pageant. This article has a photo of the contestants surrounding Lono. The Tampa Tribune May 4, 1964

May 9th, 1964 was the big day for the reopening. What an event to attend! 
 Tampa Bay Times May 8, 1964

Shopping, Garden Tours, a Polynesian Revue and the Pageant..

The winner of the Holiday Isles pageant was Pam Brown. Here’s a snippet showing her being ‘crowned’ with flowers. To my modern eyes, she seems older than 17! The Tampa Tribune May 11, 1964

This article recounts some of the difficulties during Pam’s first official duty. Apparently, the rules for who was qualified to enter the raffle were not presented clearly. Tampa Bay Times May 15, 1964

On June 7th, 1964, the Byers took out a glorious full page ad in the Orlando Sentinel; to beckon visitors from other parts of Florida to the Tiki Gardens and Signal House.

Things seemed to be going well again for Tiki Gardens.

This post is sort of a side story. Not sure if this is of interest to the Tiki community to know this level of history.

Tiki Gardens and Signal House were on their way to recovery from the Fire. Then, on Mon April 13, 1964; the Signal House was robbed.

Initial estimates were that $4k-$5k were taken from the office safe which contained the weekend receipts. 
Tampa Bay Times; Apr 15, 1965

The police made progress on the investigation due to a traffic stop, and discovering a large amount of cash. Also, the amount stolen seems to have gone down to $3801. Tampa Bay Times; Apr 17, 1965

By the next day they tracked down an additional person to total 3 captured at this point. They also connected some to other robberies. Tampa Bay Times; Apr 18, 1965

An additional 2 people were arrested in the case to bring to a Total of 5 suspects. Tampa Bay Times; Apr 22, 1965

Apparently they only charged 3 of the men, and they were sentenced. Tampa Bay Times; Jun 20, 1965

I guess the justice system moved a bit swifter back then..

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In August of the same year, Tiki Gardens would again be the victim of robbery as some urns, torches and shields were stolen Tampa Bay Times; Aug 18, 1965

Just a peek into some events that occurred at Tiki Gardens.