Tampa’s First Suburb: Hyde Park
Word that Henry Plant was to build a million-dollar resort west of the Hillsborough River encouraged the development of a residential subdivision to the south. And so began the growth of Tampa’s first suburb, Hyde Park.
Citrus groves covered much of the area west of the Hillsborough River until building in Tampa’s first suburb prevailed. As early as 1829, Levi Coller had farmed the area and sold vegetables to the U.S. Army outpost at Fort Brooke in downtown Tampa. In 1838 this land passed to his daughters and their husbands, Jeanette and W. T. Haskins (who returned east of the river for lack of a bridge), and Nancy and Robert Jackson.
James M. Watrous, who built his home at 1307 Morrison Avenue in 1882, and William A. Morrison who established a residence at 850 Newport Avenue by 1885 were early citrus growers.
The year 1886 forecast a new era in Tampa. Staggering under the blow of yellow fever epidemics which had closed everything from hotels to cigar factories, the City of Tampa received word that Henry Bradley Plant would spend a “million dollars or more” developing Port Tampa and would build a splendid resort, the Tampa Bay Hotel, on the western bank of the Hillsborough River. To support this development, the city agreed to extend Lafayette Street (now Kennedy) a half-mile west of the river and build a bridge at that point. It was from Jesse J. Hayden, owner of the ferry across the river, and his daughter Mrs. Donald McKay that Plant bought the land for the Tampa Bay Hotel.
O. H. Platt of Hyde Park, Illinois, purchased the Robert Jackson farm on the south side in anticipation of a bridge. Hyde Park became Tampa’s first Western suburb, stretching southward from the mouth of the Hillsborough River down the east side of the Interbay Peninsula.
In 1988 the bridge was erected, Plant extended his railroad across the river, and the cornerstone of Tampa Bay Hotel was laid. The subdivision of Queen Anne and Colonial Revival homes made Upper Hyde Park the ideal place to live in Tampa for generations.
By 1910 all the large citrus groves had been subdivided encompassing nearly 100 acres south of Swann Avenue between Magnolia and Orleans Avenue.
Hyde Park is a combination of individual subdivisions developed in a conventional grid with the major street perpendicular to the Bayshore. In 1907, Swann and Holtsinger began filling the mud flats along the waterfront “and in 1914, Bayshore paved, but the concentration of building before 1915 did not face the Bay.
The main artery into the development of quarter acre lots was the 80 foot wide Hyde Park Avenue. Streetcar service along Swann and Rome existed as early as 1892, and along Bayshore by 1909, adding the accessibility of Hyde Park established by the bridge and the railroad.
Between 1913 and 1928, the area flourished. Large revival style residences continue to appear until the Florida building boom of 1924-26 ended abruptly, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929 engulfed not only Florida, but the entire nation in the Great Depression. After the Depression, construction in Hyde Park followed the national trend toward smaller homes.
Where South Edison Avenue now sits, there used to be a spring. This spring, once referred to as the “Scourge of South Tampa,” claimed the lives of a few neighborhood children. It was subsequently covered over as a project with the WPA after the 1929 stock market crash. However, the spring still haunts the residents of South Edison Avenue, in the form of a permanently-soggy grass strip running between the sidewalk and street.
Although the post World War II growth trend in Tampa was to the west and northwest, the neighborhood remained relatively stable until the shift back to near-urban living and the emerging popularity of preservation in the 1970s and 1980s stimulated a new period of development in Hyde Park.
The commercial “downtown” of Hyde Park is Hyde Park Village, a shopping mall located at Inman and Swann Avenues which encompasses three city blocks. Unlike the covered shopping malls common in the US, the shopping center in Hyde Park is open and airy, with greenery and fountains everywhere and unique shopping discoveries around every corner. The shopping center was formerly home to Sunrise Cinemas, which featured many independent and art-house movies, but the cinema was closed in 2006 to make room for condominiums as a part of the area’s redevelopment plan.
Editor’s Note: Much of this information came from neighborhood organizations in and around the Hyde Park area. Please visit the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association at www.ehydepark.org, and find the Hyde Park Preservation neighborhood at www.oldhydeparkfl.org.
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