Then: Tampa’s Franklin Street was, in its heyday, the heart of the city’s shopping, business and banking industries. That began to fade by the time this photograph was taken on March 16, 1956. Suburban shopping centers, soon joined by larger shopping malls, were taking customers away from Tampa’s downtown. The city’s business leaders believed that aesthetics played a role, so many of the older buildings were covered with stucco and adorned with neon signs. Downtown hotels, like the Hillsboro pictured here, suffered as well.
Now: Tampa’s downtown has experienced a true renaissance, but this particular intersection does not reveal it as much as one might think. Gone is the Hillsboro Hotel, but the other buildings – including Tampa’s iconic and historic City Hall – remain. Underneath the stucco and plywood facades along Franklin Street lie interesting brick buildings with a long commercial history. Even the roadway has changed, with Franklin Street now a slightly winding two-lane street, the result of the ill-fated Franklin Street Mall concept.
Rodney Kite-Powell is a Tampa-born author, the official historian of Hillsborough County and the director of the Touchton Map Library at the Tampa Bay History Center, where he has worked since 1995.
Want to learn more Tampa Bay History? Read on here. Or if you’re looking to advertise, click here.
