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Southern Roots Realty is a local boutique real estate firm with five generations of real estate experience in St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area. Founded by broker/owner Natalie Bauman DeVicente, our firm specializes in unique, mid century, and historic homes and estates that fit any lifestyle. We offer white glove real estate services to help clients put down their roots in our hometown. Scroll through our history to learn about how St. Petersburg is special to us! Southern Roots Realty also supports local non-profit organizations that are both history and education based that make St. Petersburg a special place to live. We are partners with the St. Petersburg Museum of History, Preserve The ‘Burg, The Junior League of St. Petersburg, St. Pete Pride, The Celma Mastry Ovarian Cancer Foundation, The Waterfront Parks Foundation, The Stuart Society at the Museum of Fine Arts, and Great Explorations Children’s Museum. If you choose Southern Roots Realty for your real estate services and belong to one of these organizations, a portion of our sales will be donated back to support these organizations in our great city.
Great-Great Grandfather, William L. Straub, migrated from Michigan to St. Petersburg, Florida. He was in the newspaper business, and a year after his arrival, he purchased the St. Petersburg Times, and was its Editor for 38 years until his death in 1939. His newspaper editorials promoted better schools and government, and he ran a successful campaign to separate the Pinellas peninsula from Hillsborough. His greatest accomplishment was to give the public ownership of St. Petersburg’s downtown waterfront, including what is now known as Straub Park, Vinoy Park, and Bayboro Basin.
Great Grandmother Blanche Straub, daughter of William L. Straub and Sarah Straub, married Jay B. Starkey, who had moved to Pinellas County in 1899 with his parents. Shortly after they were married, they purchased 10 acres off of what is now Ulmerton Road and started a cattle ranch, which eventually amassed to a 655 acre property known as Ulmerton Ranch . There they raised their children Marian Starkey and J.B. Starkey Jr, and years later, this road on which the ranch was built was dedicated as Starkey Road. Later on, Jay and Blanche purchased a large plot of land in Pasco County, and herded the cattle from Pinellas County to what is now known as Starkey Ranch.
Grandmother Marian Starkey, grand-daughter of William L. Straub and daughter of J.B. and Blanche Starkey, married Granfather William (Bill) Gay in 1943. Bill Gay and his parents, William W. Gay and Mabel Gay owned and operated many hotels in downtown St. Petersburg, including the Gayfair (formerly The Gaymere) Hotel, the Gaycrest Hotel, the Bay Plaza Hotel, the Gay Vista Hotel, the Latonia Hotel, the Randolph Hotel, and the Mayfair Hotel.
Grandfather Robert Bauman, a tool and die maker, moved down from his native Chicago, Illinois to work for his father, an owner in the Curtiss Storage Garage in downtown St. Petersburg. In 1950, he took over operations and opened Central Garage on Second Avenue South, to service both car storage and vehicle repair. He was a revolutionary in being the first in Florida to install after-market air conditioning in automobiles. In 1950, he married a local banker, Grandmother Margaret Kinkead, and started their family in St. Petersburg. He ran Central Garage until 1983, when his oldest son, Robb Bauman, took over as owner/manager, until it was sold in 2007.
Grandfather Dowaine Daniels, originally from Utah, was a local postman and WWII Veteran and POW. In 1957, he married Grandmother Muriel Bilgrav, a local school teacher, formerly from Perth Amboy, New Jersey. The raised their four children in South St. Petersburg along the waters of Big Bayou. They own a mid century “Vision-aire” birdcage home in one of South St. Petersburg’s oldest neighborhoods.
