Joey Vars
Joey Vars knows more about Florida than anyone I’ve ever met.
As a young boy, he learned of Florida’s mud, swamp, and jungle while exploring his backyard in Land O’ Lakes.
When his parents ran errands in the city, they took him to the bay at Davis Islands. He learned about giant freighter ships as they went by.
When he got old enough to go out on his own, Joey learned what was at the end of that road, then that one, then the next.
In school, he learned of Henry Plant and Henry Flagler and their railroads that brought Florida into the modern world.
By the time he finished college at USF St. Pete, Joey had learned about Florida’s history and lived in its culture. He felt proud of the role his home state played in the history of space flight. He worked for the Kennedy Space Center for several years as a journalist, sharing what he knew with the world in detail and volume.
Still Joey had more questions — and Florida had more answers.
USF St. Pete has a master’s degree program in something called Florida Studies, a natural fit for Joey. There he studies the geography, geology, ecology, music, culture, and — especially — the history of Florida.
The Belleview Inn
Joey is the resident Florida historian of the Belleview Inn in Belleair, the first in its 112-year history.
The Belleview is Tampa Bay’s oldest hotel. It was built as a railroad-accessible resort establishing the snowbird lifestyle in Florida. Over the years, the Belleview had many owners and notable guests, including country leaders, industry magnates, celebrities, royalty, and their staff as characters in a century of stories.
After a 2015 demolition to the original hotel, only the main lobby and the rooms above still stand to tell its story — and, of course, Joey.
As the hotel’s historian, Joey curates the historical paintings around the original lobby. This includes the History Room, a small museum in the hotel with relics and documents telling the building’s story.
“In the months after I started learning about the building, I realized that all the works that have been done on this building were contradicting each other,” he says. “So as I set out to try and set the record straight and make sense of what it was… That’s where a lot of the scholarly work started to come in.”
Belleview’s Historian
When he’s not giving history tours or telling stories to a guest, Joey spends his time researching from his basement office. He scours newspaper archives, or looks for people who have old stories and photos from the Belleview. Even postcards of the hotel sent from past decades help Joey piece together the life there at the time.
“We were not able to save the original building, so now this is our last chance to really preserve the memory,” Joey says. “By going through and fact-checking everything that has been saved about us.”
He refers to the hotel as “we” or “us” when discussing history more than a century ago. He’s delighted by every detail he uncovers, and even more so to share it with people.
“At this point, I feel like I have a symbiotic relationship with this building… because there is no one left to tell her story,” he says. “I carry that story within me now. I’m the one with the research, I’m the one with the knowledge, and I need to get it out to tell other people so she can live in the minds of everybody that visits here.”
Joey Vars: Dress the Part
He’s not required to for work, but Joey dresses the part around the hotel.
He wears a skimmer hat or a flat cap, a tie matching the hotel’s green trim, and a waistcoat adorned with a lighthouse keepers pin and a Plant System flag pin. This homage to the hotel’s past work well with the NASA socks of the moon landing peeking out of his dress shoes.
Joey believes every Floridian should see a rocket launch and own a citrus tree.
“Rocket launches are as quintessentially Floridian as oranges and mickey mouse,” Joey says. “Back in the day everyone used to have a whole citrus grove, but at this point, every Floridian should have a tree that they can claim as their own, it’s the Floridian dream. The Floridian way.”
For Joey, Florida isn’t just something to learn about.
It’s someone to be.
Joey Vars also works as curator-in-residence at the Gulf Beaches Historical Museum, curator at the Gulfport History Museum, and Florida speaker for OLLI at Eckerd College and Road Scholar. He lives almost in Gulfport, in west St. Pete.
About Meet…
“Meet…” is a regular feature in The Gabber Newspaper. We hope it helps you get to know your neighbors and feel a little more connected to your community. Do you know someone you think Gulfport should meet? Send their name and contact information to news@thegabber.com.
