I was looking through the "Tampa photos" thread just now, and while looking at all the awesome shots of downtown back in the early 1900s I thought there should be a history thread where we can look back and see how much the city has changed. This thread is for old photos, articles about Tampa history, facts about Tampa's past, and/or anything else related to Tampa history.

I'll start by posting some pics that were posted on the other thread:



http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20799.jpg
http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20800.jpg
Title: Photocollage of office buildings : Tampa, Fl
Publication info: 19--.
Physical descrip: 1 photoprint : b&w ; 6 x 8 in.

http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20786.jpg
Title: Bird's-eye view of the Hillsborough County Courthouse : Tampa, Fl
Publication info: 19--.
Physical descrip: 1 photoprint : b&w ; 8 x 10 in.

Peninsular Telephone Company Building
http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20939.jpg
Title: Peninsular Telephone Company headquarters building : Tampa, Fl
Publication info: Not before 1915.
Physical descrip: 1 photoprint b&w 8 x 10 in.
Series Title: (Reference collection)
General Note: Accompanying note: "This is the original headquarters building of Peninsular Telephone Company (now General Telephone Company of Florida) soon after it was placed in service in 1915. The offices were moved from the first home at Zack Street and Florida Avenue that year, and the Tampa office was changed to dial operations at the same time, becoming one of the first exchanges of its size to be dial operated."

http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20807.jpg
Corporate Author: Burgert Bros.
Title: Florida Citrus Exchange Building : Tampa, Fl
Publication info: 1924.
Physical descrip: 1 photoprint : b&w ; 8 x 10 in.

http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20937.jpg
Title: General Telephone Company of Florida headquarters building : Tampa, Fl
Publication info: 1960.
Physical descrip: 1 photoprint b&w 10 x 8 in.
Series Title: (Reference collection)
General Note: Accompanying note: "Site of the headquarters of General Telephone Company of Florida is located at the corner of Zack and Morgan streets in Tampa. The 12-story building has been there since 1926, when the company added on to the original four-story building constructed in 1915."
Date/place captured: Photographed in April 1960.

http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/general/n043472.jpg
Title: Maas Bros. buildings : Tampa, Fl
Publication info: 192-.
Physical descrip: 1 photonegative : b&w ; 4 x 5 in.

http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc20690.jpg

http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/prints/pr09881.jpg
Title: Submarines in Tampa harbor
Publication info: 1915.

Some old postcards as well.

http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/birds%20eye%20view%20hyde%20park.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/birds%20eye%20view%20of%20courthouse.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/hillsborough%20county%20courthouse%201905.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/hyde%20park%20avenue%20looking%20north.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/hyde%20park%20avenue%20looking%20south%201909.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/hyde%20park%20trade%20school.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/memorial%20hwy%20at%20howard.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/old%20u%20s%20garrison%20at%20tampa.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/peter%20o%20knight%20home%20hyde%20park%20avenue.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/port%20tampa%20and%20tampa%20inn.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/roberts%20cigar%20factory.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/sanatorio%20del%20centro%20espanol%20built%201905.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/seventh%20avenue%20looking%20west%20in%20ybor.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/tampa%20bay%20hotel%20and%20casino.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/tampa%20bay%20hotel.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/tampa%20birds%20eye%20view.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/tampa%20water%20front%201906.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/tampa%20water%20front%201907.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/tampa%20yacht%20and%20country%20club.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards/convent%20of%20the%20holy%20name.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards2/cigar%20factory%201906.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards2/palmetto%20walk%20tampa%20bay%20hotel%201907.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards2/sulphur%20springs%201906.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards2/sulphur%20springs%202.jpg
http://www.lamartin.com/images/hp_postcards2/tampa%20yacht%20and%20country%20club%202.jpg

The first few shots are the most depressing of all.

Tampa should re-invent its own identity which it had with the magnificent architecture of the plant hotel and the old court house.

In addition to all the new developments, I wish there was a movement in Tampa to rebuild the old court house, the Tampa Terrace Hotel and the historic buildings on the blocks between there and the Sacred heart church to create sort of a "gas light district".

The beautiful architecture could be Tampa's trade mark and set it apart from the rest of Florida.

Lykes Square should become something like Union Square in San Francisco, with a Macy's department store on the northern side of the square and more retail on Franklin.

Sadly I do not see it happening, not in the immediate future. Maybe in a few years.

I've been looking for good clear aerial shots of DT Tampa in the late 70s early 80s, anybody on the forum got some they can post or link to?

Also didn't know if anyone else here had stumbled upon this site yet. I emailed the guy who does this and he says he hopes to get more material for it soon:
http://tc.fox.org/

And I found a nice shot of DT when they were building the Ice Palace / Forum whatever it is nowadays probably taken around 1995. I forgot that the Harbour Island People Mover track was still around then (left side of photo):
www.kimmins.com/images/icepalace.jpg

Glad to see you pulled my historical photos from the thread, I actually have a thread similar to this over on Tampa Forums where we have been posting historical archival photography of Tampa. I'll try and sit down and copy some of that over to this thread.

I've also been composing a book about local history and lore over the past several years in my spare time, I'll have to post some excerpts. It started as my honors thesis for my history BA at USF and has continued to grow from there. It is astounding how rich in history this area of Florida is, yet how wholly un-embraced it is.

Everytime I look at a photo of the old Hillsborough County Courthouse, I get a sick feeling in my stomach. What a beautiful and unique building! What a shame!

It's so disappointing to know that this historic structure was destroyed to make way for such non-descript buildings in that area today.

I was wondering if anyone had photos of the Tampa Theatre block. I found some from the city (http://www.tampagov.net/dept_Public_works/information_resources/_Tampa_theatre/), but if there are more I'd love to see them. I'm leasing part of the building next door (where The Hub is) and would love to display prints of the same block throughout history.

There's some links here on this page with photos of Franklin St. and Tampa Theatre.

http://www.tampapix.com/tampatheater4.htm

Truly a shame considering what Tampa became after. What beautiful architecture it once had, and a storied history.

That courthouse picture with the old high-rises is heartbreaking.

I'm looking at USF Library's Digital Database and they have some nice photos from the Robertson and Fresh Photographs section of Franklin St. I don't really know if you're able to view them at USF or not.

I got a glimpse of the Tampa Terrace hotel and seriously what a shame that hotel wasn't saved either.

I'm looking at USF Library's Digital Database and they have some nice photos from the Robertson and Fresh Photographs section of Franklin St. I don't really know if you're able to view them at USF or not.

I got a glimpse of the Tampa Terrace hotel and seriously what a shame that hotel wasn't saved either.

Is that database available online to non-students?

Is that database available online to non-students?
Yeah, here's a link to the Burgert Brothers page. And the Robertson and Fresh is on the top of the page. There's also a couple other collections, I haven't searched them yet. The best way to view the photographs is just put "Tampa" in the search engine. Also put "Franklin" too.

http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=74790&sid=553813

Yeah, here's a link to the Burgert Brothers page. And the Robertson and Fresh is on the top of the page. There's also a couple other collections, I haven't searched them yet. The best way to view the photographs is just put "Tampa" in the search engine. Also put "Franklin" too.

http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=74790&sid=553813

Thanks. It's a really terrible web application, but with some tinkering I was able to get the full resolution images out.

One of my favorite photo collections on the USF Library site is the Zylstra architectural slides collection (http://guides.lib.usf.edu/content.php?pid=86148&sid=640930#Z03%20CORAL%20UI). Photos of Tampa buildings taken during the 80s (mostly new modern buildings of note at the time and buildings available for landmark status).
Click on the "Browse" bar > "Brief View" tab to see thumbnails. Great to see some of these old "lost" buildings in full color.

Sweet - another one that bit the dust
http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A031/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,0,256,256http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A031/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,2048,256,256
http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A031/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=2048,0,256,256http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A031/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=2048,2048,256,256

Thanks Sandy . . . We didnt need this
http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A064/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,0,256,256http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A064/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,2048,256,256
http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A064/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=2048,0,256,256http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A064/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=2048,2048,256,256

http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A063/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,0,256,256http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A063/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=0,2048,256,256
http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A063/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=2048,0,256,256http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/adore-djatoka/resolver?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_id=http://digital.lib.usf.edu:8080/fedora/get/usfldc:Z03-A063/IMAGE_FULL_SIZE&svc_id=info:lanl-repo/svc/getRegion&svc_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:jpeg2000&svc.format=image/jpeg&svc.level=2&svc.rotate=0&svc.region=2048,2048,256,256

^^Smiley, you can also thank Lykes for that one as well. Come on don't you like Lykes Gaslight square better? I have been working on a post about the First National Bank building saga.

How about the lobby interior? I can't tell which I like better, the original....
http://digital.hcplc.org/burgert/archive11/10313.jpg
or the mid-century remodel?
http://digital.hcplc.org/burgert/archive13/12540.jpg

I happen to know somebody who was there at the time - it was Sandy Freedman's fault.

I'd love to hear the story.

Anyone have any shots of the Cosmopolitan Ice Company / Tropical Ice Cream / Frozenrite building in Ybor? Used to be behind the Columbia, was the business of an ancestor of mine.

I can't seem to find any pics in the Berger or other collections...wondering if they were destroyed and no longer exist, or if they are just poorly classified? I have old newspaper clippings, but would like high res...