The twin screwed steamship the SS Tarpon was built in 1886, at Wilmington Delaware. She was originally christened the Naugatuck. She measured 130 feet overall with a beam of 26 feet and was powered by twin steam engines driving iron propellers. Naugatuck’s owners sold her to Henry Plant, whose shipping empire at Tampa, Florida, was…
The story of the Old Dutch doesn’t end with hard times during WWII. Instead, it goes big-time. A hotel chain owner, Cliff Stiles, purchased the Old Dutch, a year before the end of the war. At the time, Mr. Cliff Stiles owned many hotels through the southeast. Much like the originator of the Old Dutch,…
In 1937 Frank Burghduff came to visit the Gulf shores of Panama City Beach. He was so captivated by the beauty of the area that he decided to leave his home state of New York and move to Panama City Beach. He came with the dream to build a beach-front roadhouse that would earn nationwide…