History of Tampa, Florida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The word "Tampa" is an American Indian word used to refer to the area when the first European explorers arrived in Florida. Its meaning, if any, has been lost to the ages, though it is sometimes claimed to mean "sticks of fire" in the language of the Calusa, a Native American tribe. Other historians claim the name refers to "The place to gather sticks". "Sticks of fire" may also relate to the high concentration of lightning strikes that Tampa Bay receives every year during the hot and wet summer months. The name first appears in the "Memoir" of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (1575), the author of which had spent 17 years as a Calusa captive. He calls it "Tanpa" and describes it as an important Calusa town.
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[edit] Exploration
In April of 1528, the ill-fated Narváez Expedition landed near Tampa with the intention of starting a colony. After being told by the natives of better riches to the north, they abandoned their camp after only a week. A dozen years later, a surviving member of the expedition named Juan Ortiz was rescued by Hernando de Soto's expedition. A peace treaty was conducted with the local Indians and a short-lived Spanish outpost was established, but this was abandoned when it became clear that there was no gold in the area, and that the local Indians were not interested in converting to Catholicism and were too skilled as warriors to easily conquer.
When England acquired Florida in 1763, the bay was named Hillsborough Bay, after Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies.
[edit] Fort Brooke
Spain transferred Florida to the United States in 1821 (see Adams-Onís Treaty). An Indian reservation was established in what is now north Tampa. As part of efforts to firmly establish United States control over southern Florida, then a vast swampy wilderness with sparse Seminole Indian population, a military outpost ("Cantonment Brooke") was established at what is now the Tampa Convention Center in downtown Tampa in 1823 by Colonels George Mercer Brooke and James Gadsden. In 1824, the post was renamed Fort Brooke. It was a vital military asset in the Seminole Wars. The village of Tampa began to grow up around the fort, which was decommissioned in 1883. Except for two cannons now on the University of Tampa campus, all traces of the fort are gone.
| City of Tampa Population by year [1], [2] |
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1850 - 974 (Z) |
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[edit] Incorporation and Civil War
Tampa was incorporated on January 18, 1849 with 185 inhabitants (excluding military personnel stationed at Fort Brooke). The town's first census came in 1850 when Tampa-Fort Brooke accounted for 974 residents. Tampa was reincorporated as a town on December 15, 1855, and Judge Joseph B. Lancaster became the first Mayor in 1856. During the Civil War, Fort Brooke was occupied by Confederate troops, and martial law was declared in Tampa. In 1862, a Union gunboat shelled the city during the Battle of Tampa. Union forces took Fort Brooke in May of 1864, and occupied the town for the next year.
[edit] Reconstruction
The effects of the Civil War affected Tampa for nearly 20 years. Conditions in the city deteriorated to the point that residents voted to temporarily disincorporate the city in 1869 [3]. However, it would reincorporate in 1872. As a result, Tampa's population fell from 885 in 1860 to 796 in 1870 and 720 in 1880.
Phosphate was discovered in the Bone Valley region near Tampa in 1883. Tampa is now one of the world's leading phosphate exporters. Henry B. Plant's railroad reached the town shortly thereafter, enabling the commercial fishing industry to thrive.
[edit] Late 19th Century
In 1885, the Tampa Board of Trade persuaded Vincente M. Ybor to move his cigar manufacturing operations to Tampa from Key West. The Ybor City district was built to accommodate the factories and their workers. Tampa soon became a major cigar production center. Thousands of Italian (the majority coming from Alessandria Della Rocca and Santo Stefano Quisquina, two small Sicilian towns which Tampa maintains strong ties with) and Cuban immigrants came to Tampa to work at the factories. The same would occur in West Tampa, which became a separate municipality until it was annexed by Tampa in 1925. [4], [5]
Henry Plant built a lavish luxury hotel in the city in 1891 that is now part of the campus of the University of Tampa.
Tampa was an embarkation center for American troops during the Spanish-American War. Lieutenant Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were part of the 30,000 troops stationed in Tampa for training.
[edit] Early 20th Century
In 1904, local civic association Ye Mystic Krewe "invaded" the city for the first time, establishing the yearly Gasparilla Pirate Festival.
Illegal bolita lotteries became very popular among the Tampa working classes, especially in Ybor City, where many gambling parlors sprang up. Profits from the bolita lotteries and Prohibition-era bootlegging led to the development of several organized crime factions in the city. The first boss of Tampa's organized crime world was Charlie Wall, but various power struggles culminated in consolidation of control by Sicilian mafioso Santo Trafficante, Sr. and his faction in the 1950s. After his death in 1954 from a Heart Attack, control passed to his son Santo Trafficante, Jr., who established alliances with families in New York and extended his power throughout Florida and into Batista-era Cuba.
[edit] Mid-to-Late 20th Century
In 1953, the city annexed over 60 square miles of unincorporated land, including the communities of Sulphur Springs and Palma Ceia. As a result, Tampa grew rapidly, growing by 150,289 residents during the 1950s. [6]
[edit] University of South Florida
The University of South Florida was established in 1956, sparking development in northern Tampa and nearby Temple Terrace. Busch Gardens theme park opened in 1959.
[edit] Urban renewal and suburbanization
With growth came problems. With suburbanization and urban renewal programs on the horizon, Downtown Tampa began deteriorating and many industries began to move to the suburban areas. Park Tower, opened in 1973, would be the city's only substantial skyscraper (460 feet/36 stories) until the building boom of the 1980s. In the midst of this, a race riot plagued the city on June 11, 1967. [7] The combination of the decline of the cigar industry and the construction of Interstate 4 further deteriorated historic areas such as Ybor City and West Tampa. [8], [9]
There were four attempts to consolidate Tampa with Hillsborough County (1967, 1970, 1971, and 1972). All of which failed at the ballot box with the biggest margin was 33,160 for and 73,568 against the proposed charter in 1972. [10]
These events also reflected on the city's population growth. Tampa grew very slowly in the 1960s to reach 277,714 in 1970. However, further problems in the 1970s lead to the first decline of the city's population in a century, falling to 271,523 in 1980. In contrast, suburban areas such as Brandon, Carrollwood, and other areas of Hillsborough County experienced rapid growth.
[edit] New Tampa Annexation
The biggest development of the city was the development of New Tampa that started in 1988 when the city annexed a 24-square mile (mostly rural) area between I-275 and I-75. Today, the district boasts over 22,000 inhabitants. Despite this, the city only grew three percent in the 1980s to reach 280,015 in 1990.
With the advent of air conditioning, thousands of new residents have arrived in Tampa from the northern United States. The population continues to grow rapidly, and construction is proceeding rapidly on new housing developments around Tampa.
[edit] Early 21st century
On January 5, 2002, just four months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 15-year-old amateur pilot Charles Bishop flew a Cessna plane into the 42-story Bank of America Plaza building in downtown Tampa. Bishop died, but there were no other injuries (because the crash occurred on a Saturday, when few people were in the building). A suicide note found in the wreckage expressed support for Osama bin Laden. Bishop had been taking a prescription medicine for acne called Accutane that may have had the side effect of depression or severe psychosis. His family later sued Hoffman-La Roche, the company that makes Accutane, for $70 million; however, an autopsy found no traces of the drug in the teenager's system.
[edit] See also
| City of Tampa |  |
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| History • Metro Area • People • Downtown • Education • Neighborhoods • Mayors • Sports • Law enforcement |
