NEW! BROREIN STREET AND BRIDGE
Read about the Broreins and their contribution to the development of telephone communications in the early 20th century in Tampa.
 

HIMES AVENUE and GRAY GABLES

That alternate route you sometimes take when Dale Mabry Highway is backed up bumper to bumper, Himes Avenue, was once a small stretch of a street in an area of Tampa known as "Gray Gables."  Himes Avenue is now one of the main thoroughfares of Tampa and its naming is closely related to the development of the Gray Gables community. 

Read about the naming of Himes Avenue and Gray Gables.

MOSES WHITE BLVD. (MAIN ST. IN WEST TAMPA)

Moses White was an African-American businessman who started four businesses along Central Avenue in the 1930s through the 1950s and thus helped establish the Central Avenue business district. In those days, Central Avenue commerce centered around White's establishments, which were the Cosey Corner, Palm Dinette Restaurant, the Flamingo Rooming House, and the Four Walls Club, which was a night club.

Moses White opened his first restaurant in 1932, Deluxe Cosey Corner Sandwich Shop, on Central Avenue in Tampa. It became one of the city's most popular hangouts and the center of many civic discussions. In addition to sandwiches and other fare, they served up gizzards and rice, fried chicken, and three hot dogs for twenty-five cents. Moses priced his fare with the nearby Central Park Village housing development residents in mind. The children that came over from the Village loved the hot dogs, and so people would ask Moses, “Why don't you raise the price?” He said “No, as long as I'm here I'm always going to sell hot dogs at that price.” He wanted everybody to feel welcome and not excluded. Moses was a avid proponent of helping people. White's businesses, particularly the a Cosey Corner, were gathering places for politicians and just ordinary people who just wanted to socialize. He was giving and caring, and not only with respect to his customers but he was very concerned about the community.

Moses and his brother Chester White Sr. were partners in the Palm Dinette which they opened in 1944. In the 1950s, Chester went to work for the Tip Top Bread Company and left the business to Moses and his wife. When you dined at the Palm Dinette you did not eat on paper plates. There were crisp, white linen tablecloths with matching napkins, and your food was served on fine china. The Palm Dinette was a place to take your family for dinner, a place to entertain out of town guests, and a gathering spot to visit with friends after the Easter parade. The Palm Dinette was a favorite of the soldiers from MacDill Air Force Base. The soldiers got paid one a month and more often than not their desire for a good time always outlasted their money. Moses was able to negotiate a deal with MacDill's base commander to establish a credit card system for the soldiers. Moses was a forward thinker and this was an unprecedented act and absolutely unheard of for a black man parlaying such a deal with any branch of the military then or anytime since then.

Moses displayed the food in the windows. They had jumbo shrimp, French fries, fried chicken and all kinds of soul food, with the steam tables right in front of the windows, so as people walked by not only could they see it but they could smell it. The menu was posted outside and the dining area could seat about 150 people. There were tables with linens along the wall, and along the north wall there were big booths that could hold about six people each. There was a "piccolo"--a juke box, and the music was always going. On Sunday, Moses played religious music but otherwise they were popular tunes of the day. Then it was very common to see some of the people who actually were on the juke box walking down Central Avenue. Like a Sam Cooke, or Ray Charles, or a just any of the entertainers.

Moses also owned the Flamingo Rooming House. Because of segregation, the entertainers couldn't go to the fine hotels downtown or the restaurants, so they stayed at the Flamingo, and Moses would have them performing in the Club. It was a good deal for Moses and also for the entertainers that performed at what was then called the Chipman circuit. Ray Charles used to drop in often.

Moses also helped restore peace during the race riots of 1967. "During his first term, Mayor Dick Greco used to come eat," his grandson Gerald, Jr. says. "He was always asking my grandpa for advice." In 1977, Moses moved the Cosey Corner to Main Street in West Tampa.

Gerald White Jr. was brought up on barbecue. Gerald would come by after school, grab something to eat and talk to his dad and granddad, who both worked at the Cosey Corner on Main St. Moses White died in 1984. Gerald and his dad tried to carry on the business for a while, but Gerald was busy playing basketball at the University of South Florida and got an offer to play professionally in South America. Gerald moved away, and his dad couldn't run the business alone. In 1987, the barbecue closed.

When Gerald White, Jr. came back with a little money, he wanted to get back into the BBQ business. Moses White & Sons Bar-B-Que opened in 1997 and is located at 1815 E. Seventh Avenue in Ybor City. It was his dad's idea, but Gerald Jr. runs the place and his family works there. So once again, everyone from partiers to politicians can meet and socialize over good southern BBQ.             Cosey Corner on Main St. and Ysolina, West Tampa, 1984

Sources (recommended reading)
Interview with Bernadine White-King, daughter of Moses White
Moses White & Sons Barbeque
Interview with Claretha Johnson

In the early 1800s, Levi Coller and his father-in-law John Dixon lived on Spanish grant land in the area of St. Augustine, in territorial Florida. In 1815 there was an Indian uprising and John Dixon was killed; Levi took his family and fled to Alachua County, which at the time encompassed all of the Tampa Bay area.  Levi came to the bay area a short time later for the salt air for his health (family tradition) and to set out his stake. He selected 160 acres on the bay front extending east from the mouth of the river and returned home to gather his crops and move his family. He returned with his family in 1826 and was astounded to find that during his absence the government had set aside the land he had selected for his homestead as a military reservation and had troops encamped on it. He had neglected to file notice of his intention at the land office and therefore had no claim on the land. His next selection was a tract on the east shore of the bay at the mouth of what is now known as Six Mile Creek, but which after his location there was called Collar's Creek. Coller spoke the language of the Indians and traded with them; often serving as a translator for the army during peaceful times. Levi, along with wife Nancy Dixon Coller and their five children were the first civilian settler families in the wilderness that would become Tampa at Ft. Brooke.  By 1829, Levi had farmed the area and was selling vegetables to the U.S. Army outpost at Fort Brooke and to government vessels which entered the port.  Coller had a large farm where he cultivated the first cotton planted in South Florida. He developed a large herd of cattle and hogs, and established trade with the island of Key West, using the fishing smacks which occasionally entered the bay to transport his farm products, beef and pork. He had many diversified interests and acquired lands along the west bank of the Hillsborough River to the area now known as Ballast Point. 

Read an excellent detailed account of the struggles of the Coller family with Indians, disease and even a hurricane with tidal surge, by D. B. McKay, written during the lifetime of Nancy Coller Jackson. "PIONEER WOMEN IN TAMPA LIVED DANGEROUS LIVES DURING INDIAN WAR", about three daughters of Levi Coller; Nancy Jackson, Cordelia Hoey and Jeanette Haskins.
 

Levi Coller's 1830 census shows one male and one female under 5, one male and two females age 5 to 10, two females age 10 to under 15, one female age 30 to under 30 (which was his wife) one male age 40 to under 50 (which would have been Levi himself), for a total of 9 members in his household.  Note that in 1830, the county and the river had not been named Hillsborough.  The bay area was in Alachua County, and the area was enumerated as Lochloosa Creek, Coster Ponds, New River, and Sampson River.  Click Image to enlarge, opens in new window, then zoom to enlarge.

In September of 1834, Levi & Nancy's daughter, Nancy Coller, married Robert Andrew Jackson, Jr. at the Fort Brooke garrison.  It was the first recorded wedding on Florida’s West Coast. Jackson, who was born in Philadelphia in 1802, was a son of Robert and Euphemia Parker Jackson.  Robert Jackson, Sr., also a native of Philadelphia, was a civil engineer and was employed in some important government work, among which was the construction of Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island in Charleston harbor, the fortification of which figured prominently in Revolutionary War history, as well as in the history of the War Between the States.

Robert Jackson, Jr. was a student of West Point and previous graduate of Rutgers College in New Jersey.  He was a compounder of medicines and the surgeon’s chief steward while stationed at Ft. Brooke, where he arrived as the fort's hospital steward in 1834. (The same year the territorial Florida legislature organized and named the county of Hillsborough).  In 1838, Levi Coller's 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.

 

	Robert & Nancy Jackson's 1860 census in Tampa shows children Mariah, John, William, Parker, Robert and Cornelia.  Robert Sr.'s occupation was "Ice house keeper."  The image has been edited so that the children (which were listed on the next page) appear along with their parents. Click Image to enlarge, opens in new window, then zoom to enlarge

Dr. Jackson

After his military duty, Robert and Nancy Jackson established their home on a commanding 160-acre tract near the locale known as Jackson’s Point, marking the junction of the Hillsborough River and Bay.  Robert later became a judge of the probate court of Hillsborough County. Disaster and tragedy pursued the Jacksons when in Sept. of 1848 a terrible hurricane and tidal surge swept away their home and all of its contents, even the money they had accumulated, but Dr. and Mrs. Jackson and their five children escaped and were given shelter by friends who had erected their homes on higher land.

Nancy Coller Jackson circa 1880s

Later they built a new and more substantial home fronting on what is now Platt St. This old home, which had been repaired and added to, stood at present-day 205 Platt Street.  Robert Jackson was highly esteemed as a physician, and long as he lived, though not engaging in active practice, was often consulted by other practitioners. He was one of the foremost citizens of antebellum Tampa and died just at the closing of the Civil War, on March 2, 1865.  Leaving Nancy with no legal claim to the land where her home was built, Nancy attempted to secure title to the land the family had been occupying and developing; much of it planted with orange trees.  She had intended to homestead all 160 acres, but through the unscrupulous dealings of men she had trusted, she had to relinquish half of her acreage. After an appeal to Washington, she finally secured her acreage. In order to secure an independent life for herself and her children (5 sons and 3 daughters), she sold a portion of her homestead to some prospectors who wanted to expand the growth and development of Tampa. One of these men was Obadiah H. Platt, from Hyde Park, Illinois. Obadiah was born around 1836 in New York; he was a grandson of Obadiah H. Platt and Elizabeth Hawley of Fairfield, Conn. and a nephew of U.S. Senator Orville H. Platt.

Read about Nancy Jackson in a narrative written by her great-grandaughter, using a year 1900 interview with Nancy Jackson as one of her sources.

	Nancy Jackson's home at 205 Platt St.  L to R: Wm. Parker, Levi Oscar, Nancy, Robert Andrew III, John Brown

THE BIRTH OF HYDE PARK IN TAMPA

In 1886 Obadiah H. Platt purchased a portion of the Robert Jackson farm acreage in anticipation of a bridge joining the west bank of the Hillsborough River to downtown Tampa.  He named this new 20-acre area Hyde Park, after his hometown in Illinois. The completion of the Lafayette Street Bridge in 1889, along with the opening of railroad baron Henry B. Plant’s luxurious Tampa Bay Hotel in 1891, brought new importance to Platt’s vacant land. Soon prominent citizens built homes in Hyde Park and the area flourished. Citrus groves covered much of the area west of the river, until building in Tampa’s first suburb prevailed. James M. Watrous, who built his home at at present-day 1307 Morrison Avenue in 1882, and William A. Morrison who established a residence at 850 Newport Avenue by 1885 were early citrus growers. Lots sold quickly in Tampa's first subdivision, and a middle-class residential community formed on the west side of the river.  

Nancy Coller Jackson died in 1907 at age 92.  By 1910 all the large citrus groves had been subdivided encompassing nearly 100 acres south of Swann Avenue between Magnolia and Orleans Avenue. The fortunes of Hyde Park have fluctuated. Once known as an upper middle class neighborhood, Hyde Park lost status after WWII as outlying suburbs became more desirable. Eventually, however, the area became one of Tampa’s most affluent districts. Historic preservation had a prominent role in this change, since it ensured the continuity of style in existing and new structures.

The Platt Street and Cass Street bridges were completed in 1926 using nearly identical specifications. The Platt Street Bridge was slightly longer to connect with Bayshore Boulevard.

Platt St. bridge construction, 1925 - Upper left is Seddon Island, to the upper right is Davis Islands
	The original wood bridge to Davis Islands from Hyde Park, 1926
The Platt St. Bridge as seen from Davis Islands, circa 1930s. On the left is Bayshore Blvd., Platt St. and the Tampa Electric power plant.

Robert and Nancy Jackson's son, Capt. William Parker Jackson (b.1847) married in 1874 to Louise Collins of Bainbridge, GA. He retired from the sea in 1887 and became a farmer. On April 29th, 1890, he homesteaded 153 acres that ran between present-day Hanna St. and Knollwood Avenues, and Nebraska Avenue west to the Hillsborough River.  The famous Jackson home in Old Seminole Heights was theirs.

The First Congregational Church relocated from downtown Tampa in 1885 and built a massive building at 2201 North Florida Avenue.  The building at 2201 Florida Avenue is the First Congregational Church, built in 1906 when the block contained only an orange grove. Organized in 1885 at the home of Mrs. Caroline Pettingill, the congregation moved from a frame church in downtown Tampa at the urging of pioneer Obadiah H. Platt, for whom the church was dedicated in 1906.

Sources:

Early Tampa area settlement        The Jackson House-Old Seminole Heights

Historic Hyde Park        The Platt Lineage       Henry B. Plant Comes to Town

The Robert Jackson Family

When British forces captured Charleston in 1780, American troops pulled out of South Carolina. Marion, however, stayed and organized a small force of poorly equipped men, training them in guerrilla tactics. Living off the land, Marion and his men harassed British troops by staging small surprise attacks in which they captured small groups of British soldiers, sabotaged communication and supply lines, and rescued American prisoners. After these attacks Marion withdrew his men to swamp country unfamiliar to the British. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, a British commander, gave Marion his nickname when he complained that it was impossible to catch the "Swamp Fox." Near the end of the war, Marion and American General Nathanael Greene joined forces. In 1781 they successfully fought at the Battle of Eutaw Springs and forced the British retreat to North Carolina. While still leader of his brigade, Marion was elected to the senate of South Carolina in 1781. He was reelected in 1782 and again in 1784, after the war had ended. In appreciation for his military service, the state legislature appointed Marion commander of Fort Johnson, in Charleston.

Due to his irregular methods of warfare, he is considered one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare, and is credited in the lineage of the United States Army Rangers.

Detailed military career
Brigadier General Francis Marion's gravesite

Morgan was the commander of a band of Virginia sharpshooters in the American Revolution. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was commissioned captain in the Continental Army, and he went with Benedict Arnold on the expedition (1775) against Québec, where he distinguished himself as commander after Arnold was wounded. Taken prisoner, he was exchanged in the fall of 1776 and commissioned a colonel. He fought in the battles of Saratoga in the fall of 1777. He and his frontier riflemen played a major part in defeating the British at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights. Dissatisfied and in ill health, Morgan retired from the army in 1779 but reentered as brigadier general in 1780. On January 17, 1781, promoted to brigadier general, he won one of the most brilliant victories of the war when he overcame a superior British force (commanded by Col. Banastre Tarleton) by his effective use of cavalry at the battle of Cowpens, South Carolina.

In July of 1781 he retired for good and lived out the rest of his life in peace and prosperity at his home, "Soldier's Rest," near Winchester. In 1794 he commanded a company charged with putting down the short-lived Whiskey Rebellion, an uprising of backcountry farmers incensed over a federal tax on distilled grains. He served one term in Congress, and one term was enough. A staunch Federalist like his hero George Washington, he became disgusted with Jeffersonian Democrats--"a parsall of egg-sucking dogs," as he termed them. He died in 1802 at the age of 66 (or 67).

Daniel Morgan by Janey B. Cheaney
Brigadier General Daniel Morgan

CASS STREET & BRIDGE

Cass Street in downtown and the Cass Street Bridge across the Hillsborough River were named for General Lewis Cass (1782-1866). 

Lewis Cass was born in 1782 in Exeter, New Hampshire.  He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and joined his father at Marietta, Ohio, about 1799, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar at the age of twenty. Four years later he became a member of the Ohio legislature. During the War of 1812 he served under General William Hull, whose surrender at Detroit he strongly condemned, and under General William Henry Harrison, and rose from the rank of colonel of volunteers to be major-general of Ohio militia and finally to be a brigadier-general in the regular United States Army.

In 1813 he was appointed governor of the territory of Michigan, the area of which was much larger than that of the present state. Upon the reorganization of President Andrew Jackson's cabinet in 1831 he became Secretary of War, and held this office until 1836. In 1836 General Cass was appointed minister to France, and became very popular with the French government and people.  Cass was a Democrat and in 1848 he received the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, but owing to the defection of the so-called "Barnburners" he did not receive the united support of his party, and was defeated by the Whig candidate, Zachary Taylor. His name was again prominent before the Democratic convention of 1852, which, however, finally nominated Franklin Pierce.  President James Buchanan made him Secretary of State, and in December 1860 he retired from the cabinet when the president refused to take a firmer attitude against secession by reinforcing Fort Sumter.  He remained in retirement until his death at Detroit, Michigan, on the 17th of June 1866.

In 1853, Tampa surveyor John Jackson combined 3 surveys he had drawn from 1847 to 1853 into one, completing his plan of Tampa.  Cass Street is named on this original plan.  Completed in 1926, the 511-foot trunnion bascule Cass Street bridge was built to serve the southern end of West Tampa and cost $400,000. The same designers did the Platt Street Bridge, which is almost identical. The adjacent railroad bridge, built in 1915, provided access to the Port of Tampa.

The Cass St. Bridge with adjacent raised railroad bridge and University of Tampa minarets in the background, Jan 2011

The railroad bridge before the Cass St. bridge was built, with Roberts City and West Tampa in the background, 1920
Photo taken from the top of the Bay View Hotel

JACKSON STREET

John James Jackson II was born in County Monaghan, Ireland and immigrated to the United States with his brother in 1841. The brothers traveled to New Orleans where John worked as an Assistant City Engineer for two years. In 1843, the federal government hired Jackson to survey a large land grant in present-day Palmetto, Florida. He accepted this appointment as federal surveyor and then moved to Hillsborough County with his brother Thomas to begin work.

In addition to his salary, the federal government gave Jackson a large land grant in Hillsborough County. Jackson’s work also took him throughout Florida and it was on an assignment in St. Augustine that he met and married Ellen Maher in 1847 with whom he had four children.

Several weeks later, Hillsborough County hired Jackson to survey and map Tampa which had been designated the county seat in 1846. Jackson named the streets of Tampa after U.S. Presidents, military figures and one, possibly two local individuals, William Ashley and possibly himself (or Pres. Andrew Jackson.)

After completing his assignment, Jackson returned to surveying but in 1849 he and his wife decided to move to Tampa where he established a general store on the corner of Washington and Tampa Streets. Jackson also became involved in Tampa politics and activities. 

On April 21, 1861, the 20th Florida Regiment took over the abandoned Fort Brooke and the Confederate military commander declared Tampa under marshal law, dismissed the mayor, city council and other employees and essentially nullified the authority of the town’s government.  About three weeks later, current mayor Hamlin Valentine Snell hurriedly left Tampa after selling his properties.  Jackson took over as acting mayor in May, 1861 and was elected as the 9th mayor of Tampa on February 3, 1862 serving for 19 days, the shortest in Tampa history.  This event was a formality since both the military authorities and Hillsborough County had assumed the city’s activities the previous year. After his dismissal, Jackson returned to his general store and remained in Tampa for the remainder of the Civil War.

During the war, life in Tampa was incredibly harsh for the remaining residents who primarily consisted of old men, women and children. The Union naval bombardment of the city compelled some residents to leave and facilitated the rapid decline of the city until it resembled a ghost town. John Jackson and his wife led a movement of residents to have a Catholic priest brought to Tampa and his children were the first to be baptized in the Catholic faith. John Jackson passed away in Tampa on November 4, 1887. His wife, Ellen died in January 1906 in Tampa.

   WHITING STREET

Establishing the south border of Tampa abutting Fort Brooke, Whiting was a street on John Jackson's original plan for Tampa, and was named for Lt. Col. Charles Jarvis Whiting.

Whiting was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts on November 28, 1814 and was raised in Castine, Maine.  and from the time of his childhood, his overarching ambition was to become a West Point cadet. When he received his appointment, he made the trip to West Point and was turned away for being too short. He spent the next year hanging from trees with a brick tied to each foot, hoping to stretch himself enough to meet the height requirement. He returned to the Academy the next year and was admitted. He graduated fourth in the Class of 1835.

He was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Artillery and served engineering duty during the Seminole War in Florida. In 1837, Maj. Whiting served in the Micanopy to Black Creek area, "directing inhabitants to be on the alert in case partial aggression should be offered by struggling Indians."  In 1838, he served as the assistant engineer for the survey of the Mississippi River delta. He then settled in Maine, where he established, and served as headmaster of, the Military and Classical Academy in Ellsworth.  He married in June 1841, and had a daughter. His wife died in 1847, leaving Whiting a 33-year-old widower with an infant daughter, Anna Waterman Whiting. His wife's family raised Anna, for the Army was no place for an infant. After teaching for six years and with his wife deceased, Whiting surveyed the boundary between the United States and Mexico that was established by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Whiting then settled in San Jose, California, where he farmed and surveyed. For the years 1850-1851, he served as Surveyor-General of California.

 In March 1861, at the height of the secession crisis, Whiting was stationed at Fort Inge in Texas. When Texas left the Union, he and other loyal officers were stranded there. Whiting and Capts. George Stoneman and James Oakes pondered the possibility of trying to escape to the Jefferson Barracks via the Indian country. However, they had insufficient supplies and no transportation, so they abandoned the plan. Stoneman and Whiting eventually found their way back to Washington, D. C. on a steamboat. (See similar situation for Gen. Twiggs.) Whiting was assigned to teach new recruits basic cavalry tactics at the Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. He also took a brief furlough to return home to Maine to marry Phebe Whitney, the younger sister of his brother's wife.

Whiting went on to serve the Union Army in the Civil War. Afterward, in 1870, he took command of Fort Griffin in Abilene, Texas, which was responsible for protecting travelers from raiding Kiowas and Comanches. After five months there, he was transferred to the supernumerary list on December 15, 1870. On January 1, 1871, at the age of 56, he was honorably mustered out of the service. He packed his belongings and headed home to Castine. He and his wife lived out the rest of their lives there, supported by an Army pension. As he got older, an old injury to his back at Gaine's Mill gave him increasing trouble and pain. After 20 years of peaceful retirement, Whiting died on New Year's Day 1890 at the age of 75. He was buried in Castine. Whiting spent nearly 30 years in the Regular Army, all in the mounted service. His service was honorable, and he was a good soldier.

Alfred Reuben Swann was born at Sandy Ridge, near Dandridge, Tennessee, the son of John and Sarah (Austell) Swann. His birth took place on the family plantation on September 24, 1843.  Alfred Swann was attending Maurey Academy in Dandridge when the War Between the States broke out. He enlisted immediately and served with Wheeler’s Cavalry until May 3, 1865, rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in many of the important engagements of the conflict, including Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga and Atlanta. For a time he was one of Wheeler’s special couriers.

The war had almost destroyed the Swann plantation at Sandy Ridge. When Colonel Swann returned to it, he found it in dire need of rehabilitation. Numerous obstacles were in the way, for he had to contend with the infamous problems of the reconstruction period, such as carpet-baggers, bushwackers and the constant strife between those who sympathized with the North and those whose sympathies remained with the South.  As he was rehabilitating the old Swann plantation, Colonel Swann bought the Beaver Dam plantation on credit. This was one of the finest in Tennessee. He paid off his debt by raising livestock—a process which took him five years. Gradually, he extended his interests and eventually was connected with many important enterprises throughout the South, some of them in Florida. Some of these were banks, railroads and business institutions.

Colonel Swann married Sarah Frances Burnett on June 16, 1881. The wedding took place at the ancestral home of the bride’s father, the Reverend Jesse M. L. Burnett, at Del Rio, Cocke County, Tennessee.

After wintering in Tampa, he foresaw a bright future for the community. In 1905, he began living in Tampa much of the year and became a major figure in the city's residential and commercial development. Swann and Eugene Holtsinger, a fellow Tennessean, developed a large residential subdivision on Hillsborough Bay named Suburb Beautiful. Their Bayshore Boulevard development featured a seawall and a roadway between the residences and the bay, giving Tampa its beautiful scenic drive. Swann envisioned Tampa as a major American city. Realizing that Tampa required more extensive port facilities, he purchased the marshland south of Ybor City known as the Estuary. In 1910, Congress appropriated funds to develop Ybor Channel and other port projects that contributed to Tampa's commercial growth. His business, the Swann Terminal Company, played a vital role in the port's development. In addition to his involvement in Tampa, Swann owned extensive citrus groves in Florence Villa in central Florida and timber interests in other parts of the state. Leaders such as Colonel Alfred Reuben Swann helped to make Tampa what it is today, the center of a major metropolitan area.  Col. Swann died on April 9, 1926, on a visit to his plantation at Dandridge. 

James T. Swann, Sr., one of eight children of Alfred Reuben and Sarah Frances Swann, received his early education at Swannsylvania Academy in Jefferson County, Tennessee, after which he attended Carson Newman College in that state. In 1910, James Swann graduated from Harvard University with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.  He joined his family, which by then had settled in Tampa. For a time he was active in the citrus business at Florence Villa, but this was a short-lived interest. Then, affiliating himself with his father’s realty firm, he began to participate in the development of the Suburb Beautiful. It is said that he sold virtually every lot on Bayshore Boulevard himself. He and his family came to live on that beautiful thoroughfare at No. 1801.

James T. Swann, Sr. married Mary Cotter Lucas, a native of Tampa, on November 4, 1914. She established a tradition in the Swann family: she served as Queen of Gasparilla in 1914. Her daughter was Queen in 1938 and her son and his wife were King and Queen, together, in 1941.

In 1914, Mr. Swann took over the management of the Interstate Investment Company, of which his father was president and he vice president. He remained in active charge of the company until his death in May of 1953. James and Mary had children Mary Frances, the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Jackson K. Judy of the United States Army and James T. Swann, Jr.

James T. Swann, Sr. was one of the most successful and active real estate operators in Tampa and was outstanding in civic life. He became president of Interstate Grove Properties, Inc., Swann Securities Corporation and J. T. Swann and Company. In World War II, he became associate chairman of the Division of Transportation and Communications of the Florida State Defense Council and for many years served on the board of trustees of the University of Tampa.  Mr. Swann worked vigorously on behalf of public recreation. At first a vice president of the Florida Amateur State Golf Association, he was its president from 1942 and for several years after this date president emeritus. He had helped organize the association in 1926 and became vice president at that time.

One of the civic promotions in Tampa in which he engaged vigorously was that staged by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, of which he was an officer. He was also vice president of the Rotary Club of Tampa (1922-1923); president of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce (1928-1929); president of Palma Ceia Golf Club; a director of the South Florida Fair Association, and co-organizer and a director of the Florida Citrus Growers Clearing Rouse Association, which he served as chairman in the year 1932-1933.  For hobby he indulged in the making of motion pictures. He and his family worshipped in the First Baptist Church of Tampa.

JAMES T. SWANN, JR.

James T. Swann, Jr. was born in Tampa on September 6, 1916. A member of the cigar industry, and also active in the real estate and citrus businesses, he had made a significant contribution to the development of his native city. Distinguished in school days, he was a decorated member of the United States Army Air Forces in World War II and in one of the civic promotions of Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, the annual pirate festival, was King of Gasparilla. His popularity was widespread. 

Upon his return home after the war, Mr. Swann became closely identified with Swann Products, Inc., a cigar factory and mail order cigar company founded by his father. When his father died in 1953, James Swann, Jr., assumed the presidency of the company and he devoted himself to this firm, as well as to his citrus and real estate interests. 

 

Ruth Binnicker Swann & husband James T. Swann, Jr. as the retiring Queen and King of Gasparilla, 1947.  There were no Gasparilla celebrations from 1942 through 1946.

While reigning as King of Gasparilla in 1941, Mr. Swann married Ruth Binnicker, who was Queen of the festival at the same time. They had three children; Kathleen, Terrell, and James T. Swann, III. The family worshipped in the First Baptist Church of Tampa. When on January 11, 1955, a heart attack swept away the life of James T. Swann, Jr., at the age of thirty-eight, the entire city of Tampa was shocked. It had followed with approbation and eagerness the career of this young man, an illustrious member of an illustrious family, and had predicted that some day he would be one of the South’s most noted citizens and one of the unforgettable builders of Southwestern Florida.

James' widow, Ruth Binnicker Swann, would later marry Jack Eckerd of Eckerd Corporation fame.  Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater is named for her.

Photos and portions of this Swann family biography is from J.T. Swann & Co.

DAVIS BLVD., DAVIS ISLANDS

The development of Davis Islands by David Paul Davis made him nationally famous.  Read about his visionary quest, his struggles and mysterious death, here at Tampapix contained on 4 pages at D.P. Davis and his Islands.

JETTON AVENUE

Matthew M. Jetton helped expand the Tampa metropolitan area as one of the developers of western Hyde Park, today known as Historic Hyde Park.  Jetton came to Tampa from Murfreesboro, TN, in the 1880s. His middle name was Murfree, after his hometown, and he was often called "M.M.." He first settled in Tampa Heights and worked in the hardware and lumber businesses, establishing a lumber mill near Kennedy Boulevard and Rome Avenue.  Later he became a contractor and co-founded the Jetton-Hudnall Lumber Co. He also formed the Jetton-Dekle Lumber Co. with Lee Dekle, another Historic Hyde Park developer whose name appears on a local street.  Jetton was a member of the Elks Lodge and a founding member of the Tampa Board of Trade, the forerunner to the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Matthew Jetton died in 1931 at age 71.  His grandson, Matt Jetton, was the original developer of Carrollwood.

CARROLLWOOD DRIVE, CARROLLWOOD AND LAKE CARROLL

The community and the street are named for Lake Carroll, which in turn was named in the 1800s for Charles Carroll of Carrollton (the name he used to distinguish himself from his father, Charles Carroll of Annapolis).  Charles was born in 1737 into a wealthy Catholic family in Annapolis, Maryland. His grandfather, Daniel Carroll, an Irish gentleman, emigrated from England to America about the year 1659. He settled in the province of Maryland, where, a few years after, he received the appointment of judge, and register of the land office, and became agent for Lord Baltimore. Charles Carroll, the father of the subject of the present sketch, was born in 1702. His son, Charles Carroll, surnamed "of Carrollton", was born September 20, 1737.  At the age of 8 he was sent to France to receive his education.  Upon returning at age 28, he became involved in Maryland politics and the issue of succession from England around 1755. He visited the Continental Congress in 1776, and was enlisted in a diplomatic mission to Canada, along with Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Chase. Shortly after his return, the Maryland Convention decided to join in support for the Revolutionary War. Carroll was elected to represent Maryland on the 4th of July, and though he was too late to vote for the Declaration, he did sign it.  He was the wealthiest man in the thirteen colonies, and lived on a ten thousand acre plantation in Frederick County, Maryland.

Lake Carroll was named by a family that lived on the north end of the lake in the very early years. The family was friends of Charles Carroll of Carrollton.  In the days when cattle and horses were allowed to roam at will, with no fence laws in effect, Lake Carroll was one of the few lakes that had plenty of water even in the dry years. So when the farmers found their animals near Lake Carroll, the name became Horse Pond.  The residents around the lake didn't like such a beautiful lake having a name like "Horse Pond."  Because they lived on the east side of the lake, they enjoyed beautiful sunsets and therefore gave the lake the name of Sunset Lake.  In later years, the Barclays opened a public swimming beach on the south end of the lake. For a while the lake took on the name of Horseshoe Lake because they called their place Horseshoe Beach. Later, the Boy Scouts opened a camp on the Lake. Because Carl Brorein was a big contributor to the Scouts, the lake was Lake Brorein.  Eventually, original residents of the area pushed for the lake to be renamed Lake Carroll, as it originally was, and remains to this day.

Development of Carrollwood

Matthew Murfree Jetton's grandson, Matt Jetton, was a young man in 1959 when he began building houses in the middle of nowhere, just north of Busch Boulevard and east of N Dale Mabry Highway, a two-lane road back then.  In doing so, he soon achieved local and national fame as the developer of original Carrollwood. His company, Sunstate Builders, purchased 325+ acres of citrus nursery land, just seven miles north of the City of Tampa with a vision of creating housing to relieve crowding in South Tampa.  Jetton's home designer chose the name for the community--a name his advertising agency said had "too many double letters."  Jetton insisted on the name, chosen due to the area lake, Lake Carroll.  In a hurry to begin advertising and get it out in the mail, the agency pressed Jetton for street names.  The first was easy, due to the peacocks running rampant through the groves--Peacock Lane.  The only other names Jetton could think of at the time were varieties of plywood popular in the 60s:  Samara, Nakora and Korina.

Sources: 
How Lake Carroll Got Its Name    Carrollwood Developer Looks Back on 50 Years     The Man Who Built Carrollwood 

Charles Carroll of Carrollton