At an elevation of 40 to 60 feet, the Disston Heights area is St. Petersburg's "high ground." It encompasses a high ridge once populated mostly by pine trees. Near its center is 49th Street, which to longtime residents always will be Disston Boulevard, its former name. The street is one of the three oldest in lower Pinellas County, Karl Grismer says in the 1948 Story of St. Petersburg. The street led to once-thriving Disston City, much farther south than the area called Disston today. It's a neighborhood whose confines extend from 34th to 58th streets, and from 13th Avenue on the east side of 49th Street and Fifth Avenue N on the west side of 49th Street to 40th Avenue N. Although Disston now denotes an active civic organization, a large shopping center and at least eight businesses in north central St. Petersburg, the name isn't carried by a Florida city today. Brothers Hamilton and Jacob Disston did much for this area of Florida and for the state. Hamilton Disston, a wealthy Philadelphian, came to Florida in 1881, and is credited with saving the state, which had low coffers from railroad investments. According to Ray Arsenault's St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream, Disston got together with a British syndicate and bought 4-million acres of Florida, said to be mostly wetlands, and added $1-million to the state treasury. W.L. Straub, in his History of Pinellas County, says "Hamilton Disston will be remembered as the savior of our state" for the land purchase, after which he drained wetlands from the upper Kissimmee River to the Everglades and from Lake Okeechobee west to the Gulf. But it is for the 150,000 acres on the Pinellas peninsula that Hamilton Disston is remembered. This wasn't wetlands. This has been South Pinellas County's highest ground. It is St. Petersburg's mountaintop, the place all residents in low-lying areas are told to head for in case of a hurricane. Hamilton Disston developed Tarpon Springs, then was lured to St. Petersburg by early settlers William Miranda of the Big Bayou area and Joseph B. Torres, who lived in what is now Gulfport. Disston had great plans for the southern tip of the Pinellas peninsula. He built Disston City on Boca Ciega Bay, and had the Waldorf Hotel built on its shores. A wharf extended into the bay where the steamboat Mary Disston carried freight and passengers to and from Tampa and Cedar Key. "Guests at Disston's Waldorf Hotel in 1886 could not sleep at night for the noise of fish jumping on the flats," historian Grismer said. In 1885, Dr. W.C. Van Bibber, speaking at an American Medical Association meeting, pronounced "Point Pinellas" as the healthiest spot in the nation, says Ray Arsenault. This brought an influx of respiratory refugees from the North to sunshine and saltwater. Arsenault also speaks of the rivalry between Henry B. Plant of Tampa and Disston over bringing the railroad here. Although the Disston brothers donated their land for the progress of the railroad, city founders Peter Demens and John C. Williams brought the Orange Belt here in 1888. "Had Hamilton and Jacob Disston not offered their help, the Orange Belt might never have arrived," historian Grismer says. Ironically, its arrival spelled the beginning of the end for Disston City because the rails stopped in downtown St. Petersburg. This caused many of the small businesses in Disston City to move into St. Petersburg, and by 1901 the wharf in Boca Ciega Bay was rotting and the Waldorf was deserted. It was washed away to its foundations in a storm, Grismer says. In 1905, Disston City became Veterans City in an effort to attract aging Civil War veterans there. In 1910, the area became what is known as Gulfport. The Disston brothers did not give up easily. Although Jacob Disston lived in Tarpon Springs, he spent a lot of money bringing the electric power plant from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg, Grismer says. When the railroad stopped short of Disston City, Jacob Disston brought the first trolley car line to town to extend from downtown to the peninsula's lower end. Grismer credits the Disstons with getting the south end of the peninsula settled. And although Disston City eventually became Gulfport, Gulfport Junior High, built in 1926 within the city limits at 1001 51st St. S, later became Disston Junior High. Now closed, it served the area for more than 50 years. Betsy Robertson attended Disston Junior High in the 1940s, riding in on the bus daily from St. Petersburg Beach. The bus came across Corey Causeway, "and there really was nothing much to see until we got to the school," she said. "Just some mangroves, and then some farms. It was real country." C.W. "Mac" McKee was a Disston resident who lived with his family at 5250 18th Ave. N from 1927 until after World War II. "There were plenty of woods to wander around in then" he said, remembering an orange grove at 17th Avenue and 49th Street, a watermelon patch and a corner store. McKee also remembers camping around Lake Sheffield at 23rd Avenue and 49th Street. Disston Boulevard (49th Street) was one of the few paved streets then, he said. "Back then you didn't think anything of dirt roads because most avenues were not paved." Today's Disston area, embodied by the Disston Heights Civic Association, is one of the most active neighborhood associations in the city. Many people credit that to Ruth Jacobs, a member since the early 1970s and president since 1982. The association has 250 members, but once had 700, Mrs. Jacobs said. "It has changed so that we just haven't been able to keep up with it," she said. "Maybe that's because we haven't had any threats lately. This is good, but threats bring people together to work on things," she said. When I first moved here in 1970, it was an area of mostly retirees, but they're gone on, and their heirs have sold their homes. And just in my two-block area, there are six houses for rent."