Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "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 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.
On July 4, 1888, this area was opened as a beach amusement resort by Col. S.G. Harvey. It originally was an island, but was later made a part of the mainland. One could ride the Yellow Gal commuter train from the Polk St. station in Tampa for 40 cents one way, 45 cents round trip. It made nine trips daily.
Because this area known as Black Point was closer to the entrance to Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico than was downtown Tampa at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, Henry B. Plant built a nine-mile spur line to this location. A 19-foot channel was dredged and soon built were a freight and passenger station, railroad yards, a railroad car repair shop, worker's homes, a pier, and a brick power plant.
The railroad spur line opened on February 5, 1888. By June of 1888, the Plant Steamship Company was providing service to Havana on the 1676-ton Olivette and the 884-ton Mascotte. Local boats connected Port Tampa to St. Petersburg, Egmont Key and Green Springs.
These facilities were expanded after the phosphate industry became the largest export industry at the port. In 1892, two large wooden phosphate elevators were constructed, followed by a steam-operated wooden elevator in 1903, a larger one in 1906, and a steel elevator in 1925. The warehouses were dismantled in 1951 and the elevators were torn down in January of 1971.
The Inn was a large hotel built on pilings adjacent to the wharf. It was three stories tall and accommodated 85 guests. An annex, the 14-guest St. Elmo Inn, sought northern visitors and was a social center for Tampa residents.
On March 28, 1898, the survivors of the sinking of the battleship Maine arrived here on the steamship Olivette. Through June of that year, this was the debarkation point for troops and dignitaries headed to Cuba, including Theodore Roosevelt. William Jennings Bryan and Clara Barton also visited the facilities here. On June 14, 1898, an invasion force of 16,000 left here for Cuba.
The world's largest electrical sign was first lighted here on October 30, 1953. It spelled out "Atlantic Coast Line Port Tampa Terminals" with letters 19 feet tall and up to 13 feet wide. The whole sign was 76 feet tall and 387.5 feet wide, and used 4,000 feet of red neon tubing.
This was the western boundary of the original 1885 purchase of the townsite of Port Tampa by C.W. Prescott and James W. Fitzgerald. It extended eastward from Germer to Wall Sts., and from Commerce St. on the north, southward to Montana St.
This church organized in 1892 with first pastor Rev. Dukes. The first sanctuary was remodeled in 1905 and rebuilt in 1961.
The First Bank of Port Tampa City opened here in 1924, and two years later James C. Yeats moved it to the corner of Commerce and Mascotte Sts.
This church was founded in 1889, and its first sanctuary opened in 1907 at the corner of Kissimmee and Richardson Sts. Its first pastor was Rev. J.H. Johnson. The present church building opened here in 1942.
Gospel boat captain Rev. J.T. Johnson formed the Advent Christian Church on April 10, 1898. He opened a wooden frame church on this block for the soldiers awaiting departure for the Spanish-American War, who pitched their tents nearby.
A ceramic tile business opened here in 1952. It was one of the largest commercial businesses in the city not related to the railroad or shipping.
This base opened in 1939, creating economic opportunities for Port Tampa. It was named after Col. Leslie MacDill who, on November 9, 1938, died in an airplane crash at Anacostia Base in Washington, DC.
This home was built in 1900 and was the residence of the Gambrell family.
This church formed on November 28, 1901, and temporarily used the Methodist church building. Rev. J.E. McIntosh served as the first pastor. The Baptists built their first santuary in 1905. It was followed by another in 1959. The old church building was given to a black congregation, who moved it to another location.
Faul St. is named after the family who owned this house, which was built in about 1890.
This house dates to about 1890, and was the Silveus residence.
The earliest lot purchasers after development began in the 1880s were Egmont Key ship pilots and Spanish merchants from Havana. Prescott and Fitzgerald were joined by H.G. Warner to form the Port Tampa Building and Loan Association, and lots sold from $100 to $1,000.
This residential area was established in 1938 and was owned by the city until it was sold to private ownership in 1951.
The first pier located here was constructed during the 1890s. It and the surrounding area were used by local residents to swim, fish, picnic, and sail. On June 14, 1911, the city opened a public bathhouse on the pier. Prescott St. was paved to the pier in 1923 and is named for C.W. Prescott, a wealthy merchant from Erie, Pennsylvania.
A Boy Scout clubhouse was constructed near the pier in about 1927.
This park was established on August 5, 1930, when the city leased the land from the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for $1 per year.
Masonic Lodge #153, F.& A.M., was chartered on April 23, 1896. Early meetings were held in the Opera Lodge Hall and then in the Knights of Pythias Building. The present building opened in 1946.
A club was founded on November 30, 1897, by 37 ships' captains and their wives. A clubhouse was built on Interbay Blvd. with a billiard room, dance floor and social areas. It was the city hall from 1923 until 1947, and was then moved here to serve as a community social center. It was razed in 1975.
This Masonry Vernacular home was built in 1885 with a Spanish style, second-story balcony and a flat roof. The Plant Steamship Lines built this and other one-story 50 x 16 foot homes for workers with front and back porches. The owner of this home beginning in 1893, Norwegian seaman Capt. Henry L. Johnson, remodeled it by removing the balcony and adding a New England style hipped roof and front and side balustraded porch.
Johnson had the first automobile in Port Tampa in 1901, and used it to take malaria patients to Tampa during a major outbreak. He caught the disease and died.
This house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 24, 1974.
This brick home of the Lowery family was built in about 1910.
This church was organized in a home in 1889. A sanctuary was open here by 1902.
This house was built in about 1910 for the Hinricks family.
The first Catholic mass in Port Tampa was held by Father Daniel O'Sullivan from Tampa on June 19, 1898, in the home of Manuela Garcia at the corner of Fitzgerald and Prescott Sts. Bishop John Moore of the Diocese of St. Augustine dedicated a new church here on May 14, 1899.
The church was built by Henry Levick, a contractor who lived in Tampa Heights.
This house was built as the residence of the Carranza family.
Fitzgerald St. is named for Capt. James W. Fitzgerald, the superintendent of the Plant Steamship Lines. When the first white child was born in Port Tampa on November 17, 1891, to Syrena Alford, she named him Luther Fitzgerald Alford after the town's founder.
The first house built in Port Tampa was located near here. It was a one-story frame home which the Bell Telephone Company used as an early home for its telephone exchange.
This house was built in 1900 as the residence of the Richardson family.
Capt. Fitzgerald, as did many of the Egmont Key pilots, preferred two-story frame homes with high ceilings and extensive porches upstairs and downstairs. He had one which fit that description near here, but it burned down in 1931.
This building was erected in 1947-48 and served as the city hall, replacing the Calumet Club building. Port Tampa was annexed by Tampa on May 11, 1961.
In about 1920, this brick building was erected by H.J. Hanks to replace the Warner Building on this corner. This included a store and a filling station at the corner, and was called Hanks' Corner. It later housed Keeton's Drug Store, which opened on September 15, 1939.
The filling station was enclosed in about 1945 and converted to a restaurant, then became a beauty parlor and barber shop. The building was purchased by V.T. Clark in 1956 or 1957.
This began in 1926 as West Shore High School. Later, it became a junior high school and then an elementary school.
Before the school was built here, on the site was the Old Printery, also known as the Graham Lottery Building. Built in 1893 for $48,000, it housed the country's largest manufacturer of lottery tickets. The lottery had moved here after it was chased out of Louisiana. The winning numbers were drawn in Honduras, then printed here.
It was closed by the federal government in January on 1895, and the town leased the building to the St. Louis Catholic Benevolent Association of New Orleans for use as a Catholic school. During the Spanish-American War, it was used as a supply base and then was returned to use as a private school until 1906. The building was then used as a public school until 1926, when it was razed to make room for the present school building.
In 1935, F. Ralph Gervers started publishing the Port Tampa Beacon here.
This was the residence of the Baker family.
In 1926, the bank moved into this new home, built by bank president James G. Yeats. It is constructed of imported Italian marble and cost $125,000. The bank closed on July 17, 1929, reopened on August 24, 1929, was robbed on February 26, 1932, and closed for good in 1933.
The building was bought by the Toffaleti brothers, who operated the Toffaleti Brothers Grocery and General Merchandise Store in it until 1954. The bank vault was converted to a refrigerator. The business was sold in 1954 to Ernie Toffaleti and V.T. Clark. Clark later moved the business to Hanks' Corner.
On this corner was a three-cornered building in which Laura Switzer operated an ice cream parlor. The ladies who formed the literary club in 1910-11 held their early meetings there.
This two-story building was one of only two business buildings, along with the Brick Corner, to survive fires in 1908-10. For a time, this was the home of the post office.
It was a small store when Albert F. Delbaugh bought it from G.O. Buie. Delbaugh enlarged it and moved the Keystone Market here from Davis' Corner. The store closed in 1940.
Across the street on the southeast corner was the Willis Building, erected in 1900.
Previously on this site was the Opera Lodge Hall, followed by the Pythias building in about 1910. In 1955, Ray A. Parrish and Arthur Stetzel opened the Port Tampa Auto Parts store on the ground floor. Another occupant here was Munn's Ceramics.
The Knights of Pythias, Gulf Lodge #48, had been chartered on March 20, 1896. They met in the Opera Lodge Hall until it burned down in 1908 or 1910.
On this corner was located the Davis Building, the site of the first city council meeting on June 30, 1893. In the building was the office of C.E. Hoadly and R. Bowen Daniel, who was chosen to be the first mayor.
This was early Port Tampa's main business district, known as the Brick Corner. Nearby was the Cuesta & Rey cigar factory founded by Angel La Madrid Cuesta in 1893, but he later moved his business to West Tampa.
This and the Fitzgerald Building at the corner of Fitzgerald and Loughman Sts. were the two business buildings that survived the major fire of 1908.
Roy Davis bought the building to be used as a dry goods store, then renamed as Davis' Corner. In it was Risley Drug Store, then a restaurant operated by Thomas Gomez. Beginning in about 1927, the Gomez family operated Tommy's Place for about 25 years.
This fire station was built in 1961 at a cost of $16,862.50. It replaced one built on Kissimmee St. in 1894 for $50. That wooden one was sold in 1961 for $25.
A Guide to National Register Sites in Florida, (Florida Department of State 1984)
A History of the City of Port Tampa 1888-1961, by Port Tampa City Woman's Club (1972)
Florida Historical Markers & Sites, by Floyd E. Boone (Gulf Publishing Company 1988)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Guide to Florida's Historic Architecture, (University of Florida Press 1989)
Historic Overview of Port Tampa, by M.C. Leonard (Hillsborough Community College 1978)
Historic Overview of Tampa Heights, by M.C. Leonard (Hillsborough Community College 1978)
Plant's Place: Henry B. Plant and the Tampa Bay Hotel, by Dr. James W. Covington (Harmony House 1990)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.