About Clearwater

The Tocobaga people lived here first. Then Fort Harrison went up in 1835 on the banks of Clear Water Harbor, named for the freshwater springs that bubbled up offshore near what's now the old City Hall building. The fort served as a recuperation post during the Seminole Wars. It was abandoned within months. But the springs kept flowing, the name stuck, and settlers followed.

Under the Federal Armed Occupation Act of 1842, any man over 18 willing to bear arms and cultivate the land could claim 160 acres. James Stevens, Samuel Stevenson, and the McMullen brothers took the offer. Odet Philippe, a former surgeon in Napoleon's navy, had already planted some of the region's first citrus groves in the mid-1830s. Agriculture built the early economy. Peter Demens finished the first passenger railroad in 1888, and Clearwater went from farming settlement to connected town almost overnight. Incorporated in 1891, James E. Crane became the first mayor.

In 1912, Pinellas County broke away from Hillsborough and needed a county seat. Clearwater wanted it badly enough to build a courthouse overnight. Not a figure of speech. Residents worked through the night, put up the building, and secured the designation by morning. That stubbornness set the tone for the next century.

The Philadelphia Phillies started spring training here in 1947. They never left. BayCare Ballpark, opened in 2004, hosts their 80th year in 2026. It's the second-longest affiliation between a major league club and its spring training city in baseball history. Families who made the trip decades ago now bring grandchildren. The Low-A Clearwater Threshers play at the same ballpark the rest of the season.

Downtown went quiet for a while. Cleveland Street had empty storefronts and not much reason to stop. That chapter is closed. The pedestrian district now fills with restaurants, fitness studios, and local shops that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. The Capitol Theatre, open since 1921, still runs a full calendar from the same stage. One of Florida's oldest operating theaters, over a hundred years of performances.

The biggest signal of the turnaround came in 2023. The $64 million Imagine Clearwater waterfront park opened on the harbor with a 4,000-seat amphitheater, walking trails, and the kind of public gathering space the downtown side of the water never had. A city that used to funnel everyone toward the beach is giving people a reason to stay on the mainland.

Clear Water Harbor was the first community on the Pinellas peninsula in 1859. A hundred and sixty-seven years later, the downtown is still figuring out what it wants to be. The difference now is that it's doing the work.

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