Then and Now: Historic photo project shows how much Tampa has changed in the last century

THEN

Tahiti Motor Court
601 South Dale Mabry Highway, 1958.
Tahiti Motor Court opened as a 17-room motel in 1954, welcoming guests to the growing South Tampa area. By 1961, the Tahiti Court transitioned from its original L-shaped structure to a 42-room facility with a pool, a 2-story wing fronting Dale Ave, and a coffee lounge at the center. With that expansion, the owners changed the name to Tahitian Inn.

NOW

Tahitian Inn
601 South Dale Mabry Highway, 2020.
In 1972 another 19 rooms and a new office were added and in 1984 another 18. While the beloved coffee shop had become a landmark and home to some colorful regulars, it closed in 2000, a victim of its own success. The owners did not calculate the public outcry about the closing and after a multi-million-dollar renovation in 2003, that included a corporate center, day spa and fitness center, the coffee shop reopened. After announcing it would close due to high rent, another Tampa staple- Pach’s Place- moved from its home of 25 years on Bay to Bay Blvd. and took over the coffee shop in 2018, hoping to keep two Tampa icons alive.

THEN

Tampa Jai-Alai Fronton building
5125 South Dale Mabry Highway, 1955.
Jai Alai is a game brought to the United States from Cuba but had to fight for years to get established in Tampa due to parimutuel wagering laws. Played with a ball about the size and hardness of a golf ball and hurled against the wall, opponents had to catch the speeding sphere in long baskets (called cestas) tied to players hands. Customers wagered on the outcome of the game. The original site for Tampa Jai Alai was planned for just south of Henderson Boulevard on Dale Mabry, but was scrapped due to objections from residents and potential neighbor Christ the King Catholic Church. Opening in 1953 on Dale Mabry just south of Gandy, it was the second Jai Alai fronton in the country. Matches were played seasonally for years until innuendo arose that the games were fixed. The decline of the frontons popularity was compounded by the arrival of other competitive sports teams in Tampa, and gambling available at the new Seminole Casino. The last game at the 4000-seat Tampa Jai-Alai fronton was played on July 4, 1979.

NOW

Home Depot
5125 South Dale Mabry Highway, 2020
The owners tried their hand hosting concerts including Bruce Springsteen in 1975, and Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1979, but it was not enough to sustain the business. The building permanently closed on June 29, 1998. The parent company sold the 40-acre property where Home Depot now stands for $8.3 million.

THEN

Jake Walker’s Towne House Restaurant
1220 South Dale Mabry Highway, 1954.
This image appears to be mislabeled in the Burgert Collection, a fairly unusual occurrence as the company was known to keep meticulous records. Jake Walker had two restaurants. The Towne House Restaurant was indeed at 1220 S. Dale Mabry Hwy., but opened in 1953. This photograph, taken in 1954, is Jake Walker’s Chicken ‘N Chips- opened in 1949- at 3423 South Dale Mabry. It was a popular restaurant until the mid-1960s.

NOW

BJ’s Alabama BBQ
3423 South Dale Mabry Highway, 2020.
The building was then a used appliance store for many years until BJ’s Alabama BBQ moved in 2019. One can still see the concrete slab in the foreground in front of the red brick wood shed where the Curb Service sign once stood.

THEN

Mc Donald’s
3515 Dale Mabry Highway South, on the northwest corner of Dale Mabry Highway South and Kensington Street, 1962.
Opened in 1958 as the first bay area McDonald’s, this store was a staple for the H.B. Plant High School crowd and South Tampa residents for decades. The building was razed twice for new designs, but notice how they have attempted to keep the Florida feel with palm trees running along Kensington Avenue since the first build.

NOW

Mc Donald’s
3515 Dale Mabry Highway South, on the northwest corner of Dale Mabry Highway South and Kensington Street, 2020.
The original store was walk-up only. The dining room and drive-through were added during one of the renovations. Hamburgers, $0.15 in 1958, retail for $1.49 today

THEN

Zi-Chex Drive Inn Restaurant
3801 Gandy Boulevard, 1952.
After World War II drive-in restaurants were the rage and Zi-Chex joined the fray in 1952. Unlike other such restaurants, Zi-Chex also had a lounge and served cocktails. Lunches were $0.60, specializing in southern delicacies like fried chicken, seafood, and steaks. Being in close proximity to MacDill Air Force Base was a plus, and they were convenient to the Tampa Jai Alai Fronton to the south and Derby Lane dog track to the west, sometimes snagging hungry gamblers.

THEN

Qdoba, Mattress Firm, T-Mobile, Sports Clips
3801 Gandy Boulevard, on northwest corner of Dale Mabry and Gandy Boulevard, 2020.
In 1997 the building was demolished and a 7500 sq ft Hollywood Video store was built on the corner along with other retail spaces. The movie store closed in 2008 and Qdoba, a Mexican fast food restaurant, took over the newly renovated and subdivided space in 2009.

THEN

Schwartz’s Grocery and apartment
1718 Watrous Avenue, 1927.
Neighborhood grocery stores were once very popular prior to having a car for every home, allowing residents close proximity to goods. The first Schwartz’s grocery opened on Lafayette Street (now Kennedy Boulevard) in 1907 and in 1914 moved to 7th Avenue in thriving Ybor City. While the Hispanic heritage of Ybor City is widely publicized, there was a strong Jewish community opening retail outlets in the area. Claiming to be the only one of its kind in South Florida, the Jewish delicatessen and grocery served as a true mom-and-pop store for Ybor City. Pastroma, salami, dill pickles, and salt herring were all available in the store and by mail order. In 1915, the store’s name changed to HW Schwartz Grocery and Delicatessen. In 1916 tragedy struck as the patriarch of the family, Herman Schwartz, was killed in a trolley accident.

NOW

Vacant office building 1718 Watrous Avenue, 2020. His wife Sadie remarried in 1925, left Ybor City, and opened the Watrous Avenue location in 1926. At that time, Hyde Park was blossoming with new houses. Bayshore, with its trolley line a couple of blocks from the store, had just opened. The store closed in 1933 when Sadie retired. Their oldest son would go on to open his own successful grocery store, Simon Schwartz Supermarket, in South Tampa. This site is currently listed as a 2370 sq ft office building that last sold for $300,000 in May 2017.

THEN

Tampa Electric Company power plant on Hillsborough River
Looking southwest, 1936
This Tampa Electric coal-fired plant operated on the banks of the Hillsborough River, using its water for cooling. Before becoming the city’s primary electricity supplier, Tampa Electric was in the business of operating streetcars in the 1920s. As they grew to be the primary electrical utility for Tampa, public outcry about exorbitant prices for power and charges of political corruption were leveled in the 1930s and 1940s. The Tampa Tribune moved to the property on the west side of Hillsborough River after the construction of its new building in 1974. In March of 2000, the new $40 million WFLA Channel 8 building opened adjacent to the Tribune building as the two entities- both owned by Media General- joined forces to create the first-of-its-kind news service.

NOW

WFLA News Channel 8 building
Manor Riverwalk Apartments in the background, 2020.
In 2016 the Tampa Bay Times purchased the Tampa Tribune following years of declining subscriptions and the advent of the digital revolution. It was the end of a 121-year-old daily newspaper that started as the Tampa Morning Tribune in 1893. The Tribune building once stood where the eight story Manor Riverwalk apartment complex (white building with orange design in the background) now stands. Pictured here is the 145,000 sq ft building that houses WFLA News Channel 8. Special thanks to the Sheraton Tampa Riverwalk Hotel for granting access for this photograph.

THEN

Gulf service station
Bayshore Boulevard and Swann Avenue, 1936
Gulf Oil Corporation of Pennsylvania service station was at the intersection of Bayshore Boulevard and Swann Avenue. In the 1950’s it was named Latimer’s Gulf Service. It was a popular outlet being central to Hyde Park and Davis Islands. If one looks closely, a wooden fence and sand line Bayshore Boulevard where the Beaux-arts style balustrade-built in the late 1930s- now stands.

NOW

Ward-Mitchell Civil Trial Attorneys
Bayshore Boulevard and Swann Avenue, 2020.
In 1984, the owners petitioned to rezone the property for institutional/professional use, and in 1992 Ken Ward purchased the property i for his law practice. He demolished the original office building in 2008 and constructed the current office, now Ward-Mitchell Civil Trial Attorneys.

THEN

Downtown Tampa skyline and Platt Street Bridge
View from Davis Islands, 1960.
Industrial buildings, warehouses, and port facilities once dominated the downtown Tampa waterfront. In the mid-1970s Mayor Bill Poe recognized the appeal of having public access to the waterways for residents and tourists and sought redevelopment. It took 35 years and over $35 million, but the Tampa Riverwalk that now fronts 2.6 miles along down the Hillsborough River from Water Works Park (opened in 2014) to the Channelside District, is now open.

NOW

Downtown Tampa skyline and Platt Street Bridge
View from Davis Islands, 2020
Current plans call for the extension of the Riverwalk to the west side of the river to continue it northward, connecting neighborhoods on both sides to downtown. The most remarkable change in these two photos that span 60 years, is the difference in the skyline. In the Burgert photo, the First National Bank (center left) with the flag on top was 13 stories high and looks to be the tallest building in downtown. It pales in comparison to the modern skyscrapers. Built in 1990, 100 Tampa North, in the same position in the new photo, is 42 stories high.

THEN

Morton Williams store and the Exchange National Bank
The Pettaway Building on the corner of Florida Avenue and Twiggs, home to the downtown location of Morton Williams, was constructed in 1912. The Tampa Furniture Company and The Tampa Photo and Art Supply Company were the first tenants. This Burgert photo is untitled and undated but was most likely taken in the early 1960s given the model of the cars and Tampa Coin Exchange in the image. It is another example of a photo in the collection missing the typical Burgert quality and signature.