Beaux Arts Gallery 7711 60th Street N

Owner Thomas Bruce Reese once thew Kerouac out of his bohemian establishment for violating his rules on drinking. Kerouac frequented this arts school and gallery turned eclectic event space and coffee house in Pinellas Park because it was like a slice of San Fransisco in what was at the time a conservative retirement community. Famously Jim Morrison read his poetry at Beaux Arts as a teenager.

Tom Reese (1917-2006) was eccentric, opinionated, fiery, driven, and openly gay. He was also a man of eclectic tastes and extreme talents, an accomplished painter with a BFA from Stetson University and an MFA from California College of the Arts, a journalist who wrote art criticism, a published poet and a dancer who’d performed with Ted Shawn’s world renowned all-male company.

The property was originally next to the Royal Palm Hotel built in 1911 by Howard Reese. Tom's mother inherited the property, garden and tin-roofed hotel after Howard's death. Tom began to covert the location into a launch-pad for his dream of opening a progressive art gallery and art school decades before the evolution of today's vibrant arts scene in St. Pete.

For more on Beaux Arts Gallery dive into this article from April 2021 with link below.

Article by Bill DeYoung in the St. Pete Catalyst