Two Detroits? Here is some for your Detroit trivia trove... I learned the story of how St. Petersburg, FL was nearly named Detroit while attending my Peace Corps reunion last week on Manasota Key, Florida. It came down to a coin toss between the city's two founders, each favoring the city of their origin. The losing name was given to a hotel they were building, the Hotel Detroit, now the oldest building in St. Pete with some recent preservation controversy.

It was named after Saint Petersburg, Russia, where Peter Demens had spent half of his youth. A local legend says that John C. Williams and Peter Demens flipped a coin to see who would have the honor of naming the city. Peter Demens won and named the city after his home, while John C. Williams named the first hotel after his birthplace, Detroit [[a hotel built by Demens). The Detroit Hotel still exists downtown, but has been turned into a condominium. The oldest running hotels are the historic Pier Hotel, built in 1921, formally Hotel Cordova and The Heritage Hotel, built in 1926.

from wikipedia[