The United States Maritime Service Training Station at Bayboro Harbor - St. Petersburg, FL
May - August 2024
Curated by Alexandra Vargas-Minor, CA, Florida Studies Curator & Campus Archivist, Special Collections & University Archives, USF Libraries
The United States Maritime Service Training Station (USMSTS), now known as the Marine Science Laboratory (MSL) building, is nestled within Bayboro Harbor on the south east corner of University of South Florida's St. Petersburg campus. Spanning Poynter Library Gallery and display cases on each floor of the Library, this exhibit delves into the history of the USMSTS facility from site selection in 1939 through the creation of USF's St. Petersburg campus in 1965.
On the Poynter Gallery walls, view original blueprints from when the USMSTS was built in 1940 next to photographs of the facility from the Poynter Library's Special Collections and University Archives Department. Continue to explore display cases in the Gallery and on each level of the Library with archival materials from the facility's days as a Merchant Marine Training Station, and as Florida Presbyterian College's (now Eckerd College) interim campus, until USF's "Bay Campus" was established in St. Petersburg. While the USMSTS building has changed hands over the last 85 years, it persists to this day as a venue for marine-oriented specialized and higher education.
Image: “Front of ‘A’ Building, Close-Up Image” [photograph], ca. late 1940s. The Donald Saxer/United States Maritime Services Training Station (USMSTS), Bayboro Harbor, Collection. Special Collections & University Archives, USF St. Petersburg.
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