The modern sand wedge was invented in a garage in New Port Richey. That’s not a local legend that’s grown in the retelling — Gene Sarazen, the golf champion, built a house here and worked out the club in his own garage. It’s one piece of a stranger story: this town was supposed to become Hollywood’s winter home.
The town that almost became a movie colony
George Sims bought the Port Richey Land Company and built a home here in 1916. By the time the city incorporated on October 24, 1924 — Dr. Elroy M. Avery as first mayor — Sims had a bigger plan: turn New Port Richey into a winter retreat for entertainment figures escaping the cold.
It nearly worked. Silent film star Thomas Meighan built a house on the river in 1928 and wintered here. Gene Sarazen built one too — and invented the modern sand wedge in his own garage, a piece of golf equipment history that traces directly back to this town. Irving Berlin and Ed Wynn were in the mix as well, though the record only shows down payments on property rather than houses actually built.
Then the late-1920s economic collapse hit before the Hollywood colony ever fully materialized. What survived is the story — and one actual building.
The Meighan Theatre opened July 1, 1926, named for Thomas Meighan himself, who showed up to screen his own film “The New Klondike” on opening night. It was Moorish-style, a golden dome, $50,000 to build, 500 seats — and when sound came to the theater in 1930, Meighan came back in person to push the button that started it. The Depression closed it in 1934. It reopened in 1938 under other names, changed hands more than once, and in 1972 the Suncoast Young Peoples Theatre bought and renovated it, opening with “Fiddler on the Roof” that August.
That building is still running today’s schedule at Richey Suncoast Theatre — fully restored in spring 2025 for its hundredth anniversary. The $7.75 movie night happening there this week is, structurally, the same room Thomas Meighan stood in to push a button in 1930.
Sims Park
On December 2, 1924, the city council accepted a gift from George Sims: what had been called Enchantment Park became Sims Park, and it’s still the anchor of downtown — on the Pithlachascotee River, a couple of blocks from the restaurants that make up the rest of this guide.
What’s actually downtown now
Every August, Downtown Dine Out runs prix-fixe specials across the district’s restaurants for a week — the easiest way to work through a growing scene in one shot.
For the everyday version: the pizza spots locals actually drive to, the hot dog carts and windows that aren’t on any tourist map, and where to get coffee before 8 a.m., when the Gulf breeze still means something.
Good to know
New Port Richey incorporated in 1924. The 2020 census counted 16,728 residents, with 2026 estimates running closer to 18,800. Downtown sits along the Pithlachascotee River, anchored by Sims Park.
For what’s on this weekend across the county, there’s the full Pasco guide.