An arcade isn’t just a place to go to play games. However, you might find video games in this type of arcade. St. Petersburg, Florida has several of these places downtown. These arcades are covered walkways that cut through buildings.
Many of these arcades contain cafes and shops, sometimes with benches and tables. They also often contain ceiling fans since the sun in St. Pete can be quite brutal during the summer. It can storm a lot here as well. Its no wonder that these places would be popular to get out of the wether.
So far, I only have five pictures ot the arcade entrances. The last picture is actually in Celebration, Fl. No two arcades are exactly alike. Unfortunately, most of the arcade are in older buildings, not always, though. many have disapeared over the years to make way for new development. On the other hand, the Snell Arcade and others are on the National Register of Historic Places. So the remaining one should not be going anywhere soon.
I’m sure I missed many of these arcades. Next time I’m in St. Pete I’ll have to snap up the remainder of these. Perhaps I have some more arcade pictures in the 2021 collection, and I’ll post them here.
OK, I should have snapped the above photo from a little farther away. I was too close and the “Richman” got cut off making it the “Green Arcade”. Now I’ll have to return to St. Ptetersburg soon for a do-over.
Not all are in St. Pete and some are newer. The arcade above is in Celebration, FL an was built after 1994, when Celebration was incorporated. The above has no shop access, But does add to the ambiance of Market Street.