The street is named after local developer C. Perry Snell (1869–1942), a Kentucky druggist who moved to St. Petersburg in 1900 and began buying properties he developed into upscale residential neighborhoods, commercial buildings, and public parks.
[1] He was the driving force behind the creation and emergence of the Snell Isle neighborhood in the 1920s.
According to an article in Tampa Bay Magazine,[2] When the development, originally a muddy mangrove island, officially opened in October 1925, only 39 of its 275 acres were above the high tide line.
[3] Snell Isle is also home to St. Petersburg Woman's Club.
C. Perry Snell built the Women's Club on Coffee Pot Bayou to give a location to what he considered the city's strongest and most important organization.