Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
Fort Brooke was established by Col. George M. Brooke in 1824 on a site suggested by Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson in 1818. It served as the headquarters of the army during the wars with the Seminoles in 1835-42 and 1853-58. During the Civil War, Union gunboats were repulsed on three occasions by cannon mounted here.
The first child born at the fort was Col. Brooke's son, John Mercer Brooke. During the Civil War, he directed the conversion of the U.S.S. Merrimac into the C.S.S. Virginia, the first ironclad warship.
Fort Brooke played an important role during the Seminole Wars, chiefly as a holding place for Indians who were captured or who surrendered. They were placed on ships for transport to the Indian Territory.
The army established a cemetery here during the Second Seminole War for the graves of soldiers, civilian employees and Indians. While this parking garage was being built in 1980, the graves from 1824 to 1848 were discovered and removal was necessitated. Oaklawn Cemetery became the new resting place for 102 soldiers and white citizens. For the 42 Indians buried here, they used the essence of burning herbs at the Seminole Shrine on Orient Rd.
During the removal of the graves, there were also discovered a prehistoric Indian site and another dating to the 1800s. The temple mound here was about eight feet tall and 100 feet in diameter.
The fort was closed in 1883 and its land was opened for homesteading.
Near here were the living quarters for the officers serving at Fort Brooke. One of them was future president Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor, who commanded from here in 1838-40.
This was later the site of the Carew House.
This short street is named after Tampa's first brickmason, who moved here from Quebec, Canada, in the 1830s. He was Louis LeBel, whose last name was later Anglicized to Bell. His homestead was on Whiting and Morgan Sts.
Author Rex Beach sold this land to the city in 1924, including an old Indian mound on which Confederates had constructed breastworks during the Civil War. The land became Rex Beach Park, but the city sold it in 1953. It is now the site of the Ice Palace.
The Timuquan Indians had a 50-foot high temple mound near here, which dated back about 2000 years. On top were elaborately decorated temples and homes of shamans and chiefs. During the 1840s, soldiers used a gumbo limbo tree on top for a lookout post. The army withdrew in 1882 and the material from the mound was taken away to fill in the Jackson St. ditch from Marion St. to the Hillsborough River.
Kennedy and Darling had the largest store in the early days of Tampa, located near this spot. Indian chief Billy Bowlegs received a peace medal from president Martin Van Buren, then presented it to his friend, Thomas Pugh Kennedy. After him was named Kennedy Rd., unrelated to Kennedy Blvd. which was named for a later president.
John Darling had come to Tampa as an ordnance sergeant to be stationed at Fort Brooke, and stayed after the war to go into the grocery business. The John Darling Masonic Lodge is named after him.
Count Odet Philippe enjoyed Cuban cigars and bought a slave woman who had training as a cigar maker. In his saloon at the foot of Whiting St., near the wharf for shallow-draft boats, he installed a cigar maker's bench for her, and she rolled Tampa's first cigars. In 1837, they sold for 12 1/2 cents each.
Ashley Dr. is named for long-time Tampa resident, William Ashley.
At the end of Jackson St. was the eastern end of the Tampa Ferry, a flat barge pulled across the Hillsborough River on a steel cable. Henry B. Plant talked the city into building the bridge so that his Tampa Bay Hotel would be more accessible. At a cost of $15,000, the Lafayette St. (now Kennedy Blvd.) bridge was built and put Jesse Hayden's ferry out of business in 1888.
The wooden bridge was replaced in 1913 with one built of steel and concrete. The steel had previously been used in a bridge over the Alafia River.
A large rambling two-story building owned by Jerry T. Anderson was erected here in 1884 as a hotel. It was heated by a wood stove in the center of the upstairs hall. The second floor was a popular meeting place. This corner was later the site of the offices of Pittsburgh Paint and Glass Company.
This river was first explored by Europeans on April 24, 1757, when Don Francisco Maria Celi entered it and named it Rio de San Julian y Arriaga. He continued upstream to the waterfall in the present Hillsborough State Park.
Near this site along the river stood the lumber mill of Capt. Nicholas Davis, and much later the freight depot of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
A cigar company with 200 workers had a factory here until it moved to West Tampa in December of 1910.
G.B. Greeson and Company, which had been founded in Ybor City in 1902, operated a cigar factory here until May of 1905, when it moved to West Tampa.
Until 1926, there were homes on this corner and on the north side of Cass St. They were torn down to make room for the Cass Street Arcade, later renamed the Ross Building. Also in 1926, homes were torn down on the southwest corner to make room for the new Tampa Electric Company office.
The Tampa Tribune society editor, Louise Francis Dodge, started a drive for a library in 1905, resulting in the construction of a library at 102 E. 7th Ave. Large grants from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation permitted the building to be completed in June of 1915, but the city council delayed its opening for two years while it handled issues dealing with books and personnel. That building served as the main library until this one opened in April of 1968.
After his West Tampa factory was destroyed by an arsonist in 1911, Ignacio O'Halloran opened a new factory here and began to produce cigars under the label La Flor de O'Halloran.
A cigar company produced the Los Reyes de Espana brand at its factory here until it moved to West Tampa in about 1909.
Here, at the former site of the notorious Saratoga Bar, Rev. Dr. Billy Graham in 1939 began his worldwide Christian crusade by preaching to winos and derelicts. He had attended Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace.
This cigar company opened a factory here in 1916.
This is Tampa's first public burying ground, set aside by the city council in 1850. It wasn't until after the Civil War that they got around to platting it into lots. Included in this cemetery are the remains of 102 unknown soldiers and civilians moved here from the former Fort Brooke army cemetery in 1981.
Within an iron fence is a sculpture created in marble in Italy. It marks the plot of the Ghira family, who had large real estate holdings in the downtown area.
Tampa was bombarded with Union shells three times during the Civil War, and the only human casualty resulted from one of the shells landing in the cemetery. Blacksmith Addison Mansell picked up the shell and emptied the powder from it, then poked a red-hot wire into the opening, producing a flareup. It burned his face and he nearly lost sight in one eye.
The first train station in Tampa was the former home of Capt. John Miller, located on Waters St. The South Florida Railway used it.
The present station was built at a cost of $100,000 to serve the Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, and Tampa Northern. Locally manufactured brick, stone and terra cotta were used in its construction. It was designed by J.F. Leitner and built with an Italian Renaissance Revival style. It was later owned and operated by Amtrak which, beginning in 1971, had three trains each way per day, one to Chicago and two to New York.
This building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 5, 1974.
This block was a natural amphitheater with its sides open to the air. Large oaks had branches overhanging the roof to cool the inside. In 1892, the first state Democratic convention was held here. The Wigwam, as it was called, was razed in 1928 to make room for a Coca-Cola bottling plant.
This church was organized as the Brush Arbor Mission in 1870 by Rev. Thomas Warren Long, who walked here from Brooksville to establish a mission. They first met at the corner of Tampa and Harrison Sts., but when winter came they moved into Mr. Jones' log house on Harrison. The church was renamed Mount Moriah A.M.E. Church in about 1900, and the meetings were held on Marion St., between Harrison and Fortune Sts. This site was purchased in 1892 and a frame building was erected, and another was begun in 1906.
The "lower unit", which extended about half a story below the ground level, was finished in 1913. That portion later included the pastor's study, a large meeting room, and church offices. The upper red brick portion was completed in 1917 with a Gothic Revival style. This is the mother church of 13 other A.M.E. churches in Tampa.
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached here and future Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, then the general counsel for the NAACP, attended strategy meetings here. It was the planning center in the 1950s and 1960s for protests against segregated downtown Tampa restaurants.
This company had a cigar factory here in the early 1890s, until moving to West Tampa in 1894.
This congregation dates to July 26, 1846, and Stonewall Jackson reportedly donated $5 toward the construction of the original church building. Circuit rider J.C. Lay conducted the first services. The congregation moved here from the corner of Kennedy Blvd. and Morgan St.
Just to the north is the Tom Henderson Memorial Chapel, built in 1948.
When it was formally opened by owner A.J. Simms on January 15, 1927, this 18-story hotel was the tallest building in the state. Before it was built here, this corner was the site of the two-story Electric Service Company, which also sold balloon automobile tires.
This building was erected in 1929, using a design drawn up by New York architect G.E. McKay. This is one of the last major building projects in Tampa before the Depression. It is done in the Renaissance Revival style, and is constructed of brick with glazed and polychrome terra cotta on two sides.
This building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 7, 1983.
From about 1900, the O. Falk and Brother store on this corner sold clothing and shoes. It was also called O. Falk's and then Falk's, and operated into the 1970s.
This dime store was built in 1927.
Judge N.G. Buff of Terre Haute, Indiana, built a wooden three-story hotel here in 1884. It contained 40 rooms and a five-story tower and for years was the leading commercial hotel in the city. It is now the site of the federal courthouse.
This company had a cigar factory here until 1913, when it moved to West Tampa.
On July 18, 1881, Sisters Marie Augustin and Marie Maurice of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary arrived here from Key West to start a Catholic school. Classes began in an abandoned blacksmith and gun shop at the corner of Franklin and Zack Sts. in September of that year. While its new building was being built at this site in 1889-91, classes were held in a building at the corner of Franklin and Harrison Sts.
Its home until 1927 was a long brick building taking up most of this block, with a landscaped front on Twiggs St. In that year, the school moved to a 16-acre tract along Bayshore Dr. Between 1952 and 1962, new wings were added to the main building, together with a chapel, auditorium, and a separate boys school for grades 1-8.
The county, formed in 1834, is named after Wills Hill, Lord Hillsborough. He served as the colonial secretary under King George III, and commissioned surveyor Bernard Romans to prepare an accurate map of Florida.
At the corner of Kennedy and Jefferson was the home of Judge Joseph B. Lancaster, who served as the first mayor of Tampa. He died in 1856 after holding that office for only a few months.
The Confederate War Monument was dedicated at Courthouse Square in 1911, and later moved here.
On the present courthouse grounds at 806 Madison St. was the Orange Grove Hotel, an 1860 structure which began as the home of William Brinton Hooker, an Indian fighter who arrived in Tampa in 1843 and became known as the "Cattle King" of South Florida. The two-story wooden home was located in an orange grove at Madison and East Sts., and was later converted into a hotel which became a social center of early Tampa. It was moved to this location and was later used until the 1950s as the Seaboard Railway office.
Manuel Beiro opened a restaurant here in 1927, and managed the Florida Restaurant at the 1939 New York World's Fair. It was decorated with Spanish tile and murals created by Harry Beirce of scenes from Beiro's native Spain.
In 1955, WFLA began broadcasting from this location. It was later renamed WXFL. The affiliated television station retained the call letters WFLA.
After the building here had served as the headquarters of the Masons, in 1902 it became the home of the El Nacional Cigar Company.
Before the Civil War, when Kennedy Blvd. was known as Lafayette St., John P. Fletcher established the first bakery here. He had been a baker with the army at Fort Brooke.
The six area Methodists organized on July 26, 1846, and held their services in a small frame building which they called the church-by-the-sea, built of salvaged lumber on the bay front. On September 23, 1848, it was washed away in a hurricane.
Tampa's first church building was erected here under the supervision of Capt. L.G. Lesley and John T. Lesley. It seated 60, and then was lengthened in 1885 to increase its capacity. That building was destroyed by a fire in 1894.
In 1853, John T. Givens of South Carolina built his home here. A carpenter, he became Tampa's first undertaker after getting into the business by constructing coffins.
In 1913, a building on this corner opened as the Knights of Pythias Hall, with a two-story brick tower. The building in 1925 became the headquarters of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.
This Florida Mediterranean Revival style building was designed by M. Leo Elliott, and was built of brick and glazed terra cotta trim in 1928. There is much interior ornamentation on the walls and ceilings. The lodge itself was organized in 1850. In 1865, future governor Henry Mitchell had two of its members expelled for serving as members of the Union army.
In 1921, this building designed by M. Leo Elliott was completed.
In the 1920s, Hudson and Essex cars were sold here by the Beman Beckwith Co.
L.G. Cone established here in 1889 the largest business of its kind in Florida. In addition to the livery business, it also handled funerals. The livery stable on the corner measured 44 x 100 feet.
This sanctuary was built here in 1904 while William C. Gray was the bishop and William W. DeHard served as its rector.
This land was donated for a church by the Hillsborough County Commission in 1853, and the St. Louis Catholic Church was built in 1857-59. Rev. C.A. Maille served as the resident pastor for 20 families. The present church building was completed in 1905 at a cost of $275,000. Its style is a combination of Roman, Gothic and Byzantine, referred to as Romanesque.
The main altar was donated by two Lutherans, the Smith Brothers famous for their cough drops. In 1903, their mother died while vacationing in Tampa and the Catholics provided services for her.
Jesuit High School, founded in September of 1899 and operated by the Society of Jesus, occupied this city block until the early 1960s. It was renamed Tampa College in 1929, and relocated to a 120-acre tract north of downtown in 1956.
The first post office in the area was established on November 24, 1831, with the name of Tampa Bay. The name was shortened to Tampa on September 23, 1834.
This is the oldest significant Tampa building originally designed for government use. Designed by James Knox Taylor and built in 1902-05, it is built of granite faced with marble at the second floor. Its construction cost was about $1,000,000. It has Second Renaissance and Classical Revival elements, including a full-height Corinthian portico.
It was expanded in 1931 and served as the main Tampa post office until 1965. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 7, 1974.
Rev. Edmond Lee, who owned a small general store and apothecary shop, organized the Presbyterian Church in 1854. He rowed here from Manatee to preach.
Since 1900, the sanctuary of the First Presbyterian Church has been located here. The adjoining manse on the Zack St. side was built in 1924 by the Woman's Auxiliary and the John Chapel Tims Educational Building on Marion St. was built in 1949. The Memorial Building at the corner of Marion and Polk Sts. was also built in 1949.
This masonry row building was erected in 1913 by Frank Bruen, the founder of the Tampa Gas Company, and Capt. R.F. Webb, the owner of the DeSoto Hotel.
The wood frame hotel located here was designed by J.A. Wood and built in 1892-93. For a time, it was owned by Mr. and Mrs. W.L. Parker. It was torn down in about 1949.
The cornerstone for a five-story building on this site was laid in 1908. It was built on land donated by John Long with the condition that, if it was ever no longer used for a YMCA, ownership of it would revert to his heirs. The building was badly damaged in a fire during the early 1970s and later demolished.
Abe Maas, a Georgia merchant, came to Tampa in 1886 and rented a store on Franklin St. He turned it into Abe Maas' Dry Goods Palace. In front of it on April 28, 1887, two sputtering arc lights were turned on, the first electric lighting in Tampa.
By 1900, with his brother Isaac, he built the business into the only complete department store with clothing, furniture and household items. They moved into the former three-story Drause Building on the southeast corner of this intersection.
When that was outgrown, they built an eight-floor store on this corner, the former site of the four-story American National Bank building. In 1935, the Maas Brothers store affiliated with the Hahn Department stores, and later was a part of Allied Stores Corporation. It closed in 1991.
John Eberson designed this nine-story building with Italian and Spanish Renaissance Revival stylistic elements. Built in 1926, it is an example of his "atmospheric theatre" design concept. There are two tower-like extensions on the south side, and the auditorium is extremely ornate. This was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 3, 1978.
During the 1930s in the same building, J.M. Merritt's Hale Drug Co. had a store on the first floor and Dr. Steigerwald had his dentistry office on the second.
Its competitors were the Franklin Theatre across the street, and the Victory Theatre at the northwest corner of Tampa and Zack Sts.
Early in 1902, Benjamin & Owens began selling Locomobiles in their bicycle shop. Locomobiles were buggies with steam engines in the back.
On this site was the home of Capt. Dominico Ghira, the first native-born Italian to permanently reside in Tampa, arriving in 1849. He became an American citizen in 1853 and was a prominent merchant. Later, this was the site of the Roberts Building, where the first telephone company headquarters were located.
This bank first opened on April 16, 1894, and is still in existence. The first office was located in the building that had previously been the home of the Gulf National Bank. In the 1890s, well-known attorney Peter O. Knight had his office upstairs. By 1925, it had moved into a large two-story building with tall columns on the south side.
Later, a tall skyscraper annex was built. At ten stories, it was then the tallest building in Tampa, designed by John Trice.
First Baptist was the second church in the city, organized in 1859. In 1885-86, about 40 members attended church in a building on this corner. At the time, Rev. William H. Simmons was its pastor. In 1896, the church moved to Hyde Park.
This was the site of the popular Strand Theater, located at the south side of what later became the women's wear department of Maas Brothers Department Store. The theater claimed to be the south's "Most Beautiful Theater". It was air-cooled and had twinkling stars and moving clouds in the ceiling.
During the 1880s, Dr. Howell Tyson Lykes was shipping cattle to Cuba. He was joined by his seven sons in the land, shipping and cattle businesses. The firm of Lykes Bros. was chartered in 1910 by the seven, and by the 1940s expanded into planting and citrus groves. A controlling interest in the Pasco Packing Co. was acquired in 1967. The site which its office formerly occupied is now called Lykes Gaslight Square.
In 1895, the Tampa Gas Company organized but it took some years for natural gas to become popular for home use. It was used in street lanps in Tampa beginning in 1898. In 1914, the company's office was moved to a new brick building here, with the Madison Hotel upstairs.
In early Tampa, this was the location of a store with a wide array of merchandise, including alligator hides and teeth, sea oats, pelts, seashells, and egret plumes supplied by Alligator Ferguson. Ferguson had a banana plantation on the Shark River.
During the 1880s, the two-story building here was the home of the boot and shoe store of Emery, Simmons and Emery. For many years, this was known as Giddens' Corner because it was the site of the three-story building housing the Giddens Clothing Co.
Later known as Tibbetts' Corner, this was the site in the 1880s of the City Barber Shop managed by Charles M. Turk. This area was also saturated with gambling dens and saloons. In August of 1887, it was completely destroyed by fire.
The corner received its name when a new building was erected as the confectionery store of the Tibbett brothers, which later became a real estate office.
The Tibbetts business expanded to two other buildings on Franklin St., known as Tibbetts' Other Corner (on the corner of Franklin and Harrison Sts., with Mrs. Copeman's music studio upstairs) and Tibbetts' Middle Store.
In 1896, the firm owned by Edward M. Hendry and Andrew J. Knight erected a three-story building here.
On this site in the 1880s was the three-story opera house owned by attorney Henry L. Branch, son of Dr. Franklin Branch. It opened on March 7, 1894, with a performance of the comedy "Fats" by Lambert & Richardson's Dramatic Troupe. The large hall on the second floor served for years as the town's meeting place for most important affairs. On the first floor was the hardware store of George H. Packwood and William A. Morrison.
In a two-story building here during the 1880s, Fannie C. Binkley had a dry goods store. Upstairs were the offices of the Tampa Real Estate and Loan Association, which was operated by John H. Fessenden and Frederick A. Salomonson.
The first courthouse in Tampa was constructed of logs and was burned by the Seminoles in 1836. Records indicate that it might have been located here. Later ones were built here in 1848, 1855 and 1891. The 1891 courthouse was constructed of red brick with a silver dome, and was designed and built by J.A. Wood for $60,000. It was torn down in 1952.
In the early 1900s, this was the site of Ball's Grocery. Across on the northwest corner was Drawdy's Grocery. One of the exterior walls of Ball's served as a movie screen, with the audience sitting on the benches on the Courthouse Square. Any overflow would use the nearby steps and curbs.
This land was previously the homestead of pioneer Dr. John P. Wall. The Elks bought a house here in 1905, and made additions to it of white brick. It had a restaurant and rooms for the night. In 1913, a new red brick clubhouse was constructed here.
The Elks moved to the former Crystal Ball night club on Bayshore Blvd. in the 1950s. The clubhouse was replaced by the "Colonial Corner" of the Tampa Federal Savings & Loan Association.
Before World War I, on this corner was the home of Dr. Douglas. Next door on Kennedy Blvd. was a white two-story frame house with a big bay window and porch, occupied by Susie Kelly Dean and her family. Next was the livery stable owned by Mr. Boller. In 1926, the elegant 12-story Tampa Terrace Hotel financed by 40 investors replaced them. It went out of business in 1965 and was later torn down.
In the 1880s, this was known as Dr. Stringer's Corner. A little to the west was a large oak tree known as Tampa's Hanging Tree after it was used to execute a transient sailor after an attempted rape.
The town of Tampa was incorporated on February 12, 1849. The name "Tanpa" (spelled with an "n") was first reported in 1562 by Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda to be the name of a Caloosa Indian village. Fontaneda was washed ashore near Sarasota in 1545 and was rescued by the Indians, with whom he lived for 17 years.
In 1890, a $10,000 building to house the city government and the police department was built on a portion of this site.
Bonfoey and Elliot designed this structure, which was built in 1915. Its style has been described as Eclectic, including Doric columns, terra cotta details, and a balustrade around the main block, with an eight-story tower. Previously on this site was a frame house dating to 1842, which I. Stalnaker bought in 1914 and moved to 3210 8th Ave. to save it from destruction.
Hortense Oppenheimer Form headed a group who wanted the city to buy and install a large clock, which the Tampa Times called "Hortense the Beautiful". The clock, still called "Hortense", weighs 2,840 pounds and was converted from weekly handwinding to electricity in 1956.
This building was added to the National Register of Historic Places on October 1, 1974.
Tampa's first paved sidewalk was installed here in front of Archibald Ross' bakery. He used Georgia marble to create his sidewalk in 1888. Franklin St. was named after Ben Franklin.
On this corner was a general store and confectionery owned by Jose Virgil. For payment, he accepted cash and cotton, hides, tobacco, beeswax, Spanish moss, eggs, skins, furs, potatoes, chickens and tallow. Following the Civil War, he sold his house and business to B.C. Leonardi and moved to New Orleans.
This was also where the Tampa Corps of the Salvation Army was started in 1893 by Capt. Wilbur Hall and Lt. Fred Weller.
The cigar factory located here in the early 1880s was the only one in Tampa at the time. It was owned by three Cubans, Ynosente Gonzalez, Manuel Castillo, and Domingo Valdez. The building was located just south of a large drainage ditch, which ran the length of Jackson St. to the Hillsborough River.
Capt. James McKay, using finished lumber from Mobile, Alabama, built a home for himself and his wife, Matilda, here in 1848. He operated shipping lines which opened Tampa to the outside world. McKay built the 1848 courthouse at a cost of $1,358 on Courthouse Square at Madison and Franklin Sts., and in 1858 opened a cattle trade with Cuba. The following year, he was elected mayor. During the Civil War he ran ships through the Union blockade and formed the "Cowboy Cavalry" to protect cattle drives.
On this corner in about 1900 were the stables of a company owned by W. Lesley Brown. That firm rented all types of horse-drawn conveyances.
Robert Mugge and his family had a two-story home on this corner. He ran a successful beer and wine distributorship and built the Bay View Hotel during the 1910s.
During the 1880s, the Isben S. Giddens & Co. store on this corner was one of the leading retail establishments of Tampa. It was owned by Andrew J. Knight and Edward A. Clarke, an individual from Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, New York.
Long before that, the stage coach line depot was located near here. The Big White Road stage service connected this area with Gainesville, Palatka and Brooksville three times a week. The route through Tampa followed present-day Nebraska Ave., Kennedy Blvd., Morgan St., and Washington St.
In 1903, La Compania Dominguez Cigar Company of West Tampa was purchased by J.M. Martinez and moved to 316 Washington St.
After having started in West Tampa, the Tampa Cigar Company merged with A. Symonette and Brothers, then in 1906 was bought by Havana Claro Company and moved into a cigar factory at 314 Washington St.
Capt. Leslie had a two-and-one-half story wooden building here for various businesses. An early tenant of the building located here was druggist W.A. Givens. For a while, the city hall was located on the second floor.
This corner was also, during the 1890s, the location of the Tampa Journal building.
In 1909, this became the site of the four-story, 162-room Hotel Olive, which later had a ten-story annex added, and was renamed the Thomas Jefferson Hotel. It was demolished in 1969.
The first brick building in Tampa was completed here on February 13, 1886, to house the Bank of Tampa. It had been established on November 10, 1883, as The Bank of Tampa with James P. Taliaferro as its president and T.C. Taliaferro as its cashier. It was renamed the First National Bank of Tampa later in 1886. Later, it became the First National Bank of Florida.
Later, the building was the home of the Tampa Daily Times, which enlarged it. The newspaper was sold to the Tampa Tribune Co. and combined with the Tampa Tribune on June 1, 1958. Radio station WDAE, owned by the newspaper, had its studios in the building. It became part of the office building of the Merchants Association of Tampa, which was later demolished.
Located here was the first three-story brick building in Tampa, completed in 1886 by Dr. Howell T. Lykes. He named it after his wife, Almeria. The building housed the offices of Lykes Brothers, Inc. from 1947 to 1968.
Robert Mugge, a watchmaker and saloon operator, planned a ten-story building here as a liquor warehouse, but after construction started in 1912 he changed it to a hotel with a large lounge on each floor. It passed the Hillsborough Hotel as the largest commercial hotel in Florida. It had been described as a cross between a YMCA and a ten-story bar room.
The hotel was imploded in February of 1980 to make room for the present Paragon Complex.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
Black Florida, by Kevin M. McCarthy (Hippocrene Books 1995)
Bob Vila's Guide to Historic Homes of the South, by Bob Vila (Lintel Press 1993)
Cuidad de Cigars: West Tampa, by Armando Mendez (1994)
Florida From Secession to Space Age, by Merlin G. Cox and J.E. Dovell (Great Outdoors Publishing Co. 1974)
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
Florida Jewish Heritage Trail, by Rachel B. Heimovics and Marcia Zerivitz (Florida Department of State 2000)
Florida Off the Beaten Path, by Diana and Bill Gleasner (The Globe Pequot Press 1993)
Florida's Fabled Inns, by Louise K. Frisbie (Imperial Publishing Company 1980)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Fort Brooke, A History, by Donald L. Chamberlain (Florida State University 1968)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
History of the First South Florida Missionary Baptist Association (1888-1988), by Altermese Smith Bentley (The Mickler House 1988)
Indian Mounds You Can Visit, by I. Mac Perry (Great Outdoors Publishing Company 1993)
The Pioneer Churches of Florida, by The Daughters of the American Revolution (The Mickler House 1976)
Rails 'Neath the Palms, by Robert W. Mann (Darwin Publications 1983)
St. Petersburg: Once Upon a Time, by Del Marth (City of St. Petersburg, Florida 1976)
Tampa, by Karl H. Grismer (The St. Petersburg Printing Company 1950)
Tampa: A Pictorial History, by Hampton Dunn (The Donning Company 1985)
Tampa: A Town on Its Way, (Junior League of Tampa, Inc. 1971)
The Tampa of My Childhood, by Susie Kelly Dean (1966)
Tampa That Was ... History and Chronology Through 1946, by Evanell Klintworth Powell (Star Publishing Company, Inc. 1973)
Tampa: The Treasure City, by Gary R. Mormino and Anthony P. Rizzo (Continental Heritage Press, Inc. 1983)
Tampa Town 1824-1886: The Cracker Village With A Latin Accent, by Anthony P. Rizzo (Hurricane House Publishers, Inc. 1968)
Tampa: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, by Michael Bane and Mary Ellen Moore (Mishler and King Publishing 1981)
< i>Wish You Were Here: A Grand Tour of Early Florida Via Old Post Cards, by Hampton Dunn (Byron Kennedy and Company 1981)
The Ybor City Story (1885-1954), by Jose Rivero Muniz
Yesterday's Tampa, by Hampton Dunn (E.A. Seemann Publishing, Inc. 1972)