Stories of St. Andrews

02/27/2026

We’re proud to announce the publication of a brand-new book: "Ever Yours, Lillian". This is a companion book to "George Mortimer West: His Path in History", both written by Nancy Hudson.

This new volume offers a rare, behind-the-scenes look into the personal side of one of the most influential couples in the history of St. Andrews. Through letters, relationships, and the quiet moments that never made the newspaper headlines, "Ever Yours, Lillian" helps tell the other half of the story — revealing how partnership, sacrifice, and shared vision shaped the future of our bay town in ways still felt today.

The book is authored by Nancy Hudson — local historian, preservation advocate, and President of the Historic St. Andrews Waterfront Partnership — whose work with the Panama City Publishing Company Museum has helped preserve and interpret the story of this community for future generations.

Nancy is also a partner in the Stories of St. Andrews project and an important member of the St. Andrews community, dedicated to keeping our local history alive, accessible, and grounded in the people who lived it.

Together, "George Mortimer West: His Path in History" and "Ever Yours, Lillian" provide an intimate and compelling portrait of the couple whose influence helped shape the destiny of St. Andrews.

📘 Visit the Panama City Publishing Company Museum to learn more and get your copy today.
https://historicstandrews.com/museum/

🎧Here is also a deep dive, podcast style audio story talking about the book which you can listen to here:
https://youtu.be/KnV9trzv3xY

02/26/2026

Just Released: Chapter 6: The SS Tarpon: Gulf Coast Steamer and Community Lifeline

⚓️ Click this LINK to READ the full story.
https://storiesofstandrews.com/stories/the-ss-tarpon-gulf-coast-steamer-and-community-lifeline

For more than thirty years, there was a sound that meant life was about to get a little easier in St. Andrews.

It wasn’t a train whistle.
It wasn’t a truck on a highway.
It was steam… and it was coming from the bay.

Before paved roads reached our town—and before rail connections were complete—the weekly arrival of the SS Tarpon meant mail, supplies, machinery, flour, oil… even visitors… were finally here.

SS Tarpon Story

Merchants could restock their shelves.
Fishermen could ship their catch.
Families could travel for business, medical care, or opportunity.

In the early 1900s, the Tarpon wasn’t just another vessel calling on the bay — it was the connection between St. Andrews and the outside world.

Now, we’re releasing the full Stories of St. Andrews deep-dive story into the working steamer that quietly helped shape the rhythm of life in our town for decades… until one sudden Gulf gale brought it all to an end in 1937.

Because sometimes… the most important thing in town wasn’t on land.

It arrived by water. 🌊

🎧 Click this LINK to LISTEN to our deep-dive podcast style audio story.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chapter-6-the-ss-tarpon/id1879667683?i=1000751202763

📺 Click this LINK to WATCH on YouTube.
https://youtu.be/9sVGf3jglsU

🧭 Click this LINK to hear Salty Pete tell the story for kids.
https://youtu.be/qyMIRKPCvFE

Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society
St Andrew's Views
Keep St Andrews Salty

02/24/2026

Happy Birthday Panama City, Florida. 117 years old. Incorporated Feb. 23, 1909. Here is a story about The Making of Panama City and why St Andrews became part of Panama City in 1927.

👇Stories of St Andrews: The Making of Panama City👇
https://youtu.be/A1EIAxQegAw?si=X8EWtyKEhKByKs_I

Historic Downtown Panama City
Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society
Keep St Andrews Saltyw

02/23/2026

Meet Salty Pete. He is a fictional character who has lived in St Andrews for the entire history of its existence. From the day the Spanish sailed by and gave it the name St Andrews until today, Salty Pete has seen it all and is excited to tell these stories to next generation so they can understand our wonderful community.

Apple Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/stories-of-salty-pete/id1879669639

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3omUCxMjWam8mHIO5O8Mg1?si=4rxvM07ITBi8lFm3-PsPZg

Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society
Keep St Andrews Salty
St Andrew's Views

02/22/2026

Another Reason I Was Born in Panama City, Florida

Recently I told the story of one grandfather—how a war, a beach, and a few fishing summers turned a vacation spot into home.

Here’s another reason.

During World War II, my other grandfather moved his family—including my young father—to Panama City to work at Wainwright Shipyard. The bay wasn’t quiet back then. It thundered with steel, cranes, and ships being built for a nation at war.

He came for the job. He came to serve. And like thousands of others, he stayed for the life.

He bought a home in The Cove. Opened a business. Raised his family. And eventually passed away in the same house he purchased during those war years.

That story wasn’t unusual.

Wainwright didn’t just build ships. It built neighborhoods. It filled churches and schools. It turned a small bay town into a place where families planted roots and generations followed.

So if you trace the line back far enough—past the fishing boats, past the schoolhouses, past the war—you’ll find this:

I wasn’t born here by accident.

I was born here because two different men, in two different ways, decided St. Andrews Bay was worth staying for.

And thousands of other families can say the same.

Historic St. Andrews
Keep St Andrews Salty
St Andrew's Views

02/21/2026

Ever wish you could have taken a tour of St Andrews, Florida in the early 1900s? Well now you can!

Watch this video of a photographic tour of the historic model of the town created by the Panama City Publishing Company Museum in Historic St. Andrews, Florida.

Keep St Andrews Salty
Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society

A tour of St Andrews, Florida through the eyes of my camera and with the help of the Town Model at Panama City Publishing Company Museum in Historic St Andre...

02/21/2026

There aren’t many places that grow up with you.

St. Andrews State Park did.

👉 Click the link to read the full story.
https://storiesofstandrews.com/stories/standrewsstateparklifetimeofvisits

I’ve been coming here for nearly 60 years — and with this year marking the park’s 75th anniversary, I can honestly say I grew up right alongside it. I learned to swim in the old kiddie pool behind the jetty. I fished those rocks with my dad back when we didn’t worry about sunscreen timers and electrolyte packets. I collected shells that still sit in my home today.

I recently spent another week camping in our RV along the Grand Lagoon — hiking the trails, photographing winter birds, watching bald eagles patrol the sky, and standing on the shoreline as the sun rose over the bay and set into the Gulf.

We saw hooded mergansers return for the season. Gators warming themselves along Gator Lake. A turtle reminding drivers that patience is not optional. Divers dropping in at the jetties. Families lining up for sunset photos. And in a rare only-in-St-Andrews moment, we watched the Navy’s newest combat ship glide through the pass on its way to open water. 🇺🇸

After all these years, you’d think I’d run out of things to photograph here.

But this park always gives you something new.

This latest story is about what it means to grow up with a place — to watch it change, rebuild, endure storms, and still feel the same when you drive through the gate.

If St. Andrews State Park has ever meant something to you… I think you’ll understand this one.

There is also a link in the story to hundreds of photos I have taken over the last few years at the park.

Keep St Andrews Salty
Friends of St. Andrews State Park, Inc.
St Andrew's Views
I Love Panama City Beach, FL
All Things St. Andrew's State Park

02/19/2026

Chapter 5 is now live: When Cincinnati Discovered St. Andrews — The Boom That Came By Mail. Cincinnati Land Boom

In the late 1800s, St. Andrews didn’t get discovered by tourists.

It got discovered by the mail.

While Midwestern cities like Cincinnati were choking on coal smoke and factory grit, Florida was being sold as an antidote—warm winters, salt air, and a fresh start. And St. Andrews Bay? It was marketed as the brightest jewel of them all.

That’s how the Cincinnati Project took off: tiny lots, big promises, and a railroad dream that was supposed to turn paper deeds into prosperity.

But the railroad never arrived the way buyers expected. And without infrastructure, those little lots sat stranded—more hope than home.

Here’s the twist: even when the scheme cooled, some people still came. And some of them stayed. They brought work, grit, and the slow-building kind of growth St. Andrews has always done best—water first, community first, no hype required.

👉 Read the full story: click the link in this post.
https://storiesofstandrews.com/stories/when-cincinnati-discovered-st-andrews

🎧 Prefer to listen? Click the podcast-style audio link and hear the story in a podcast style dialog.
https://youtu.be/HMoIIRgfYmU

Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society
Keep St Andrews Salty
St Andrew's Views
West Florida & Panhandle History Express

02/17/2026

Ocean Aero Triton: The Silent Sailor at the Marina

Most mornings at St. Andrews Marina, the sounds are familiar.
Hal­yards tapping aluminum masts. Diesel engines warming up. Gulls arguing over breakfast.

But this week, something different sat quietly on a trailer near the docks — low, sleek, almost like a small submarine disguised as a sailboat.

What many of you noticed is called TRITON, built by a company named Ocean Aero. It isn’t a recreational boat. It isn’t a toy. And it certainly isn’t science fiction.

It’s an autonomous vehicle designed to do something no traditional vessel can:
Sail on the surface using wind and solar power… and then submerge like a submarine.

On the surface, TRITON uses that tall black wing sail and deck-mounted solar panels to travel quietly for weeks at a time. When needed, it can fold down and slip beneath the water, operating underwater without a crew. It’s used for research, maritime monitoring, and defense-related missions — the kind of work that requires endurance, stealth, and serious engineering.

So why was it here?

Panama City has long been a center for advanced maritime testing and development. The Gulf waters around us support naval research, unmanned systems testing, and coastal monitoring technologies. St. Andrews Marina isn’t just a place for weekend fishermen and sunset watchers — it has quietly supported working vessels, research craft, and innovation for generations.

From shrimp boats to Navy range vessels…
From the old steamship docks to modern autonomous systems…

St. Andrews has always been a place where the sea meets the future.

Seeing TRITON staged at the marina is just the latest chapter in that story. It’s a reminder that our waterfront is more than scenic — it’s active. It’s relevant. It’s part of the ongoing evolution of maritime technology.

We’ve always lived by the water here.
Now we’re also helping shape what works on it — and beneath it.

That’s St. Andrews.

More Info Here: https://www.oceanaero.com/

Note: For editorial tranparency, I want to disclose the people were edited out of the photos at the request of the project team.

St Andrews Marina
U.S. Navy
Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division

02/16/2026

New Story: Chapter 4 Lambert Ware and The Wharf that Saved St. Andrews

👉 Click the link to read “Lambert Ware and The Wharf that Saved St. Andrews.”
https://storiesofstandrews.com/stories/lambert-ware-and-the-wharf-that-saved-st-andrews

There was a time when St. Andrews nearly disappeared.

After the Civil War, Old Town was burned. Hurricane Island was abandoned. The salt works were destroyed. Government officials called this place “desert country.”

What remained?
A few fishermen.
A quiet bay.
And a town hanging by a thread.

Then a man named Lambert Ware arrived by sloop from Maryland and saw something others missed.

He didn’t see ruins.

He saw opportunity.

With lumber, grit, and maritime know-how, Ware built a dock and a mercantile that would change everything. Ware’s Wharf became the anchor of St. Andrews’ recovery — the place where goods arrived, fish departed, credit was extended, and confidence returned.

For decades, steamships like the Tarpon tied up there. The town found its rhythm again. Commerce came back. Settlement became permanent.

The wooden wharf is gone today, replaced by the marina we all know. But the ground beneath it? That’s where St. Andrews learned how to function again.

This is the story of the dock that saved a town.

👉 Click the link to listen to a deep dive podcast style audio story about Lambert Ware.
https://youtu.be/2bPHL_E1EMo

Keep St Andrews Salty
Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society
St Andrew's Views

02/15/2026

For 75 years, St. Andrews State Park has welcomed families, fishermen, campers, photographers, and sunset watchers through its gates.

👉 Click the link to read the full story and celebrate 75 years of St. Andrews State Park.
https://storiesofstandrews.com/stories/st-andrews-state-park-celebrating-75-years

But the story of this place didn’t begin in 1951.

It began with Spanish explorers naming the bay… with turpentine workers tapping longleaf pines… with engineers carving the pass that created Shell Island… with soldiers guarding the Gulf during WWII… and with generations of locals who grew up swimming in the Kiddie Pool and scrambling across the jetties.

This week, I’m sharing a special anniversary story that traces how this stretch of shoreline became the anchor of our community — and why it still feels like coming home.

If you’ve ever fished the rocks, camped under the pines, watched aircraft roar overhead, or just stood at the pass at sunrise… this one is for you.

Historic St. Andrews
Bay County Historical Society
Keep St Andrews Salty
St Andrew's Views
Friends of St. Andrews State Park, Inc.