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.
This section of Temple Terrace Hwy. was renamed in January of 1949 in honor of G. Frank Bullard, the county commissioner who had secured the planting of palm and magnolia trees along this thoroughfare.
The Temple Terrace Woman's Club was founded on March 18, 1959, and one of its first projects was the establishment of a library. The country club lent the city the old caddy house for this purpose. In 1961, it moved to the city hall. A permanent location at this site was dedicated on April 17, 1966, and rebuilt in 1997.
This church was organized in the summer of 1955 by about 30 individuals led by Robert Byram and A.F. Johns. They first met in the old wooden school, and then in the new brick school. They incorporated in 1956 with the name of First Presbyterian Church of Temple Terrace, but changed the name in 1958 after the post office confused it with the First Presbyterian Church of Tampa.
This sanctuary opened on November 4, 1956, and has been remodeled and enlarged since.
Permission to build this church was granted in late 1950, with plans and specifications approved by the city commission. In June of the following year, it was discovered that the newly-laid foundation violated the 35-foot setback line, but since it was an honest mistake it was allowed to remain.
A rural post office was located in a Florida College building from 1947 to 1955, and then was moved here into a store owned by Thomas W. Bennett. The present post office facility on 56th St. opened in 1968.
This was built in two sections, with the final one finished in 1925. It has served as a night spot and later as the city hall. A small room on the second floor, later used for city council meetings, was the game room with all types of gambling paraphernalia.
It has a Moorish architectural style and elaborate tiling in the foyer. Also in the foyer was a mummy case claimed to have been imported from Egypt. The ceiling was draped with bright-colored silk in thick folds.
On October 8, 1947, the Civic Association was granted the exclusive management of the building and the adjacent pool, subject to the rights of the Garden Club, PTA, and other community organizations who used it. By the end of the following year, the building was a community recreation center. The building later became the Florida College Student Center.
Also known as the Fleming Apartments, a housing facility here was begun in 1926 but not completed until the 1930s. The three-story apartments were intended to house golfers. In 1936, they were sold to the Florida Fundamental Bible Institute for $560.
While he was a student at the institute during the mid-1930s, Billy Graham worked here carrying mortar during construction on the third floor. Graham was the valedictorian of the class of 1940.
In the 1940s, the apartments were bought by Dr. Sherman Smith to be used as a school for the deaf. He wound up renting some of the apartments during World War II to servicemen from Henderson Airfield, the present site of an industrial park.
While this area was the hunting preserve of Chicago hotel magnate Potter Palmer, his guests lodged in a structure built in 1910.
This Y-shaped hotel was built in 1923, and was designed by M. Leo Elliott of Tampa. It served as the original Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club building, and the top ends of the "Y" faced the first and last holes.
In September of 1932, the Florida Fundamental Bible Institute opened in this building. It was non-denominational, founded along the lines of the Moody Bible Institute of Nyack, New York.
This later became Sutton Hall, a dormitory of Florida College.
This home was built in 1923 for D. Collins Gillett, who served as the first mayor and a commissioner of Temple Terrace. He owned the Snow Park Service Station near downtown Tampa. He named the town after the oranges growing on the nearby groves of his father, M.E. Gillett. The home was later owned by the E.A. McCartney family.
This house with a tiled roof was built in 1928 for G. Seager Smith.
This house was built in 1925 for Cody Fowler, early developer and president of the American Bar Association. He sold the house to his mother, Maude C. Fowler. This is the most photographed home in Temple Terrace.
This house was built in 1924 with Spanish tile roofing and was one of the original designs of architect Dwight Baum of the Sanford White firm in New York. It was built by the Bing & Bing Construction Co., and was the residence of Emma D. Pilcher. Most of the Bing & Bing homes were built in pairs, and the twin to this one is located at 105 S. Lochmoor Ave. This home was sold in 1943 to R.W. and Dora Gilbert.
This 1926 Mission style home of Frederick Griffenburg is constructed with stone and coquina.
The Mission style parapet is typical of the Florida land boom. This home was built in 1924.
West side of Sleepy Hollow Ave., between Halliewood and Bannockburn Aves. (322 Sleepy Hollow Ave.)
This was the home of M.G. Campbell, president of Temple Terrace Assets Corporation. the house was built in 1927 with a plan adapted from an adobe house occupied by Campbell as he recuperated from tuberculosis in Mexico. Later owners included Mr. and Mrs. S.L. Smith.
This Mission Revival style home was built in 1925 with a tri-portal front. It was the home of businessman George V. Booker, who sold it in 1926 to F. Ewing Roach.
This was a typical Bing & Bing house, built with small kitchens and dining roms because ownership of the home automatically meant a membership in the Temple Terrace Golf Course. Later owners of the homes frequently enlarged these rooms. This began as the residence of L.B. Krumick, and later was owned by Daniel M. Healy and then Charles P. Bosserman.
This home with a Turkish dome and Moorish style was built in 1924-25 for Charles M. Hart. The design is somewhat altered from its original appearance. Later owners included Gary Breckinridge and George Barford.
This home with casement windows and clay tile entrance steps was the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Burt L. Hamner. He served as president of Temple Terrace Estates and the B.L. Hamner Realty Corporation. The Hamners moved away from Temple Terrace in 1924 because they felt it had inadequate roads for the transportation of their children to school.
The purchaser was Fowler Properties and for a time beginning in 1925, Maude C. Fowler lived here. She was one of the major promoters of Temple Terrace as a resort community and this house was the center of much political activity. This was later the home of the Whitley family.
The house was built around an open court, which has since been enclosed.
This is the oldest non-Bing & Bing house in the development, built in 1923-24 by a local contractor. It was the residence of retired minister Rev. J.W. Van de Venter, and later of the Griffin family. Rev. Van de Venter sometimes lectured at the Florida Fundamental Bible Institute and Mrs. Van de Venter served as the city clerk, treasurer and tax collector beginning in 1933.
This building was erected with Turkish Revival style in 1922-23 to serve as the office for the development. As development activity declined, the building became the headquarters for the golf course. It became vacant during the 1930s and remained empty until 1943.
The Temple Terrace Community Church was an outgrowth of the non-denominational Sunday Church School, organized on October 19, 1941, mostly through the efforts of the Girl and Boy Scouts. Early meetings were held in the Morocco Club, and then in the school. In 1943, this building was purchased for $60 by the church, which still is located here.
This structure was erected in 1926 as part of the hotel/country club complex.
This two-story Mission Revival style building was erected in 1922 as a dormitory for chauffeurs and other employees of wealthy hotel guests.
Beginning in 1958, this facility house the Florida College Academy, an elementary school.
This home was built in 1927 for Frank C. and Jessie M. Maas. It was later owned by Jack and Grace K. Ritter.
This home was built for Edward Ellis in 1926-27. Its design is a popular one of the community.
J.J. Johnson of the Temple Terrace Construction Company built this home in 1925-26, using a Dwight Baum design. It was built with three bedrooms, and Ernest Traina later added a family room. He utilized the same type of Spanish tile as the original construction.
This home was built by a local designer in 1925. Until 1939, it was the residence of Warren M. and Laura Dilsaver, who were the manager and treasurer of the Tampa Chemical Company.
In 1955, Temple Terrace Elementary School opened and the previous school building was moved to this site. It was a one-room converted horse stable, holding its first classes in September of 1928. Mrs. Dodd was its first teacher. The building was expanded to two rooms in 1934 and three in 1937.
It became a family recreation complex, and in 1979 was renovated to make it available for clubs and social gatherings. The park area surrounding it was maintained by the Temple Terrace Garden Club.
< h4>North side of Flotto Ave., across from Broadway Ave.
This school was built with 16 rooms, openeing in 1956 and replacing the former converted horse stable. In 1957-58, this school was expanded to 28 rooms. It was supplemented by another school, Riverhills Elementary, in 1965.
For a longer walk, from the elementary school follow these instructions:
This land was purchased from Basil and Mary Brook in February of 1954, and on it a mission of Tampa's Most Holy Redeemer Parish was established. It became an independent parish on November 27, 1958.
Masses were held at most Holy Redeemer, then in the Civic Center. This church was built in 1960, with the parish school following four years later.
In 1956, this church began as a mission of the Spencer Memorial Baptist Church, and held its early meetings in the old schoolhouse. The first of its four buildings was finished in October of 1957, called the Mission Hills Chapel.
O.K. Lightfoot donated this land in September of 1959 for a youth center. Funds were raised by the Optimist Club. This center was built in 1962-65 after several starts and stops in the building process.
This road is named for Maude C. Fowler, who served as the city's first vice mayor, beginning June 27, 1925.
This began as an elementary school in 1958, housed in the former Chauffeur House and Country Club Garage, built for limousines and drivers for wealthy hotel guests.
The Church of Christ in 1942 was involved in establishing a college somewhere in Florida. It was to be independent from the church, accepting no contributions from it, but faculty and members of the board would come from the church. In 1944, the church decided to buy the property which Dr. Sherman Smith had previously purchased to house a school for the deaf. This included the hotel, apartments, and 179 acres on the east side of the Hillsborough River.
The original name of the college was Florida College, changed in September of 1944 to Florida Christian College. Classes opened in September of 1946 for grades 10-12 and the first two years of college. In 1952, the high school grades were eliminated and it became a four-year college. The name was changed back to Florida College in June of 1963.
This library was a gift in 1967 from William F. Chatlos, a prominent industrialist from Golden Beach.
The golf course was laid out by Tom Bendelow, and the holes were named as well as numbered, called Tower, Live Oak, Out Look, Elbow, Riverview, Swing 'N Hope, Pond, Perfection, Hollow, Hill Top, Grove View, Twin Pines, Pine View, Terrace, Devil's Delight, Happy Hollow, and Hillside.
The course was run by the city until 1956, when a long-term lease was entered into with Temple Terrace Outdoors, Inc. A new clubhouse was built in the late 1950s near the tenth hole.
Discover Temple Terrace, (Temple Terrace Preservation, Inc. 1992)
Historic Overview of the City of Temple Terrace, by M.C. Leonard (Hillsborough Community College 1978)
The Illustrated Guide to the Florida West Coast, by M.C. Bob Leonard (Purple Islands Production 1992)
Temple Terrace: The First Fifty Years, by Cleo N. Burney (Friends of the Temple Terrace Public Library 1975)