Why “Stories of St Andrews”?
Why the Stories Matters
St. Andrews today is a small, walkable waterfront community shaped by its long relationship with the bay and a steady, deliberate evolution rather than rapid growth. Once a fishing village, then a port town, and later a working marina, it has become a place where the waterfront lifestyle is the central driver—why people come here, and why they choose to stay.
Life in St. Andrews still revolves around the water. Boats, docks, sunsets, and daily bay rhythms remain part of everyday life, not background scenery. Locally owned businesses define the district, independence is a point of pride, and the community has consistently resisted becoming generic or overbuilt. What defines St. Andrews today is balance—between growth and restraint, change and continuity—rooted in the understanding that its future depends on protecting the waterfront character that drew people here in the first place.
St. Andrews didn’t just happen. It became what it is today because of a long chain of decisions, events, ambitions, and accidents—some obvious, some almost invisible now. Understanding those moments isn’t about nostalgia or trivia. It’s about understanding cause and effect.
Some of the forces that shaped St. Andrews are so distant that their fingerprints are no longer obvious. Spanish charts, early settlement attempts, failed land schemes, wars fought far away, railroads that never came—none of these leave behind a building you can point to or a street name you recognize. And yet, each one nudged the community forward, redirected its course, or closed off one future while opening another. They mattered because they were steps along the path that led here.
Other influences are easier to see. You can stand on the waterfront and trace a direct line from Ware’s Wharf to today’s marina culture. You can connect World War II to the Wainwright Shipyard, and from there to the Port of Panama City, and understand how that shift changed the economic gravity of the entire bay. These are moments where history didn’t just whisper—it reshaped the shoreline.
Both kinds of history matter.
The distant events explain why St. Andrews developed differently from nearby towns, why some dreams stalled while others took root, and why the community evolved at its own pace instead of becoming something larger, faster, or more industrial. The visible events explain how the town adapted—how it shifted from fishing village to port town to marina-centered community, and eventually into the walkable, independent, stubbornly local place it is today.
This project tells the story of St. Andrews one chapter at a time because that’s how history actually works. Not as a straight line. Not as a single founding moment. But as a series of pushes and pulls—economic booms and busts, wars and recoveries, infrastructure built and bypassed, people who stayed and people who moved on.
Some stories explain the foundation. Others explain the turning points. Together, they explain the arc.
Understanding that arc matters because it gives context to the present. It explains why St. Andrews values independence. Why it resists becoming something generic. Why the bay, the waterfront, and the small businesses still matter so deeply here. It also reminds us that today’s choices—about development, preservation, and identity—are just the next steps in a story that’s been unfolding for centuries.
These stories aren’t about looking backward for nostalgia’s sake. They are about understanding how St. Andrews arrived at this moment, so the decisions made next are informed by what has already been learned. Knowing that history helps ensure that as St. Andrews continues to grow and change, it does so in a way that moves the community forward while protecting the character, resilience, and sense of place that make living here worth holding onto.
What is my vision for the project?
Stories of St. Andrews - Told by the People That Live It
Every place has a history. What often gets lost are the everyday stories—the people, the small businesses, the routines, and the moments that quietly shape what a community really is. Stories of St. Andrews exists to capture those stories while they are still being lived.
This project is about St. Andrews as it is today, told through the voices of the people who call it home. Some stories will reach back into the past, connecting today’s St. Andrews to its roots. Others will focus squarely on the present—on the people, places, and relationships that give the area its character right now. Together, they form a living record of a community defined by independence, continuity, and a strong sense of place.
The project begins by looking backward before it looks forward. Stories of St. Andrews starts with a foundation of historical stories that examine how St. Andrews came to be—what forces shaped it, what ambitions succeeded or failed, and how geography, industry, transportation, and individual decisions influenced its path. These early stories explore the influences that drove the development of St. Andrews into the community it is today, providing essential context for everything that follows. They are not exhaustive histories or academic accounts, but narrative explanations of why this place looks, feels, and functions the way it does. These historical stories, included as part of the project’s foundation, allow present-day voices to be understood not in isolation, but as part of a much longer and still-unfolding story.
The stories shared here may take many forms. Some will be historical accounts and stories that tell the history of St Andrews Some will be business stories, told through the people who run them—how they found their way to St. Andrews, what it takes to stay, and what their work means to the community around them. Others may explore roots and continuity, highlighting long-standing institutions and generational businesses that have carried something forward through decades of change. In every case, individual stories are woven into the larger story of St. Andrews itself—how the people, places, and choices of the past shaped the community that exists today.
There will also be stories about where people gather—the places with social gravity, where music plays, conversations overlap, and St. Andrews meets itself. Some stories will focus on food, drink, and everyday rituals, the spots woven into daily routines that quietly define neighborhood life. Others may spotlight makers and independent retailers, people who chose independence, risk, and community over chains and convenience.
Beyond individual businesses, Stories of St. Andrews will occasionally step back to tell broader community and place stories—local art, the waterfront, the working bay, and moments from the past that help explain how St. Andrews became what it is today. These stories provide context, connecting personal experiences to the longer arc of the district’s history and evolution.
This list of story ideas is intentionally open-ended. Not every story will be told, and new ones will emerge over time. The direction of the project will follow the people, the conversations, and the moments that feel worth preserving.
Stories of St. Andrews is not a marketing project, a promotional campaign, or an attempt to polish the edges. It is about listening, observing, and documenting. It is about letting people tell their own stories in their own words, supported by photography that reflects real life rather than staged moments.
This project is created by Bob Taylor, a photographer, writer, and Panama City native who was born here, whose career took him to live and work around the country, and who has since returned here and now calls St. Andrews home. After a 30-plus-year career spanning science, business, and leadership, Bob shifted his focus to documenting people, neighborhoods, and everyday moments that too often go unrecorded. Now retired, he divides his time between extensive travel and life on St. Andrews Bay—always with a camera nearby and an eye for the details that give a place its soul.
Stories of St. Andrews grew out of a desire to preserve living history—not as a historian or a marketer, but as a neighbor paying attention. Through photography, interviews, and narrative storytelling, the project aims to capture St. Andrews as it exists today while honoring the paths, people, and events that shaped it into what it has become. It is created for the people who live here now and for those who will want to understand it years from now. The project is rooted in authenticity, respect for the past, and a belief that the most meaningful stories are best told by the people who live them.
