The Disappearing City: How Tampa was Voted Out of Existence

John T. Lesley

Though Tampa experienced growth and prosperity during the 1850s, war clouds and troubled times loomed on the horizon.  The city endured four years of strife during the American Civil War, including occupation by Federal troops in 1864, and by the end of the 1860s the city faced a bleak future.  Former Confederate officer and Tampa citizen John T. Lesley ran for mayor in Tampa’s 1869 election with a simple campaign promise:  vote for him and he would abolish the city of Tampa. 

His “No Corporation People’s Ticket” won, and the newly elected officials did not take office, thereby allowing the city’s 1855 charter to lapse, effectively eliminating the City of Tampa as a legal municipality.  Four years would pass before any sort of municipal government would take charge in Tampa, but another ten years would go by before the economic and emotional depression that had gripped Tampa was replaced by optimism.

Hope did eventually come to Tampa, and it arrived on steel rails via a steam powered engine.  Henry Plant’s decision to make Tampa the railhead for his South Florida Railroad, and Tampa Bay a main port for his steamships, revolutionized the area.  Plant’s arrival in 1883 was the first of three monumental developments for Tampa in the 1880s.  The second followed two years later when Vicente Martinez Ybor and Ignacio Haya decided to open cigar factories just outside of Tampa.  Ybor City would eventually become home to hundreds of cigar factories and tens of thousands of workers.  It was also around this time that phosphate was discovered in the area’s rivers, particularly the Hillsborough and Peace, as well as in the ground in eastern and southern Hillsborough County.

Tampa’s population exploded, from 720 people in 1880 to over 5,500 in 1890.  New neighborhoods blossomed with these new arrivals.  Preceding Ybor City were Tampa Heights (originally known as North Tampa) and Hyde Park.  Together with Ybor City and what is now downtown Tampa, these four areas formed the first four wards of the new City of Tampa, which received its charter from the state on July 15, 1887.  Tampa was finally realizing the success that had been anticipated thirty years earlier.

City of Tampa is Dissolved

1855 Map of Tampa (TBHC Collection)

Following the end of the Civil War, Tampa’s leaders attempted to return their shattered city to some level of normalcy. Not surprisingly, Federal authorities had their own plans for bringing the South back into the United States. The era that would come to be called Reconstruction was highlighted by the national government’s attempts to bring what they considered equality to the Southern states. Those attempts were met with resistance and even open hostility throughout the South.

John T. Lesley (TBHC Collection)

Though involved with Tampa’s resurgence in the 1880s, John T. Lesley is perhaps best-known for his political actions during the initial post-war period. In his return to civilian life, he played an instrumental role in how Tampa received the concept of Reconstruction.

Florida’s Reconstruction legislature passed a law in 1869 calling for the reorganization of municipal governments. Lesley and other former Confederates felt that this would lead to Republican and African American control of city government. In an effort to eliminate that threat, Lesley ran for mayor on the platform that if was elected he would abolish Tampa’s city government. He won in a landslide and, true to his word, he saw that the city’s charter lapsed, therefore ensuring that it would not fall into the hands of Carpetbaggers (Northerners) and Scalawags (Southerners aiding the Carpetbaggers). Tampa would not become a city again until July 1887.

Rodney Kite-Powell
Saunders Foundation Curator of History
Tampa Bay History Center

Mass Transit In Tampa: Past, Present and Future?

Sixty-seven years ago this week, Tampa Electric Company ended Tampa's electric streetcar service. A popular and efficient method of mass transit that had existed in the city since 1885 came to a halt, replaced by buses and, more importantly, cars.

That the city and county were at the brink of incredible change in 1946 is undeniable. The end of World War II saw millions of people moving to Florida, with Hillsborough County one of the main beneficiaries of this growth. New neighborhoods, mostly outside of Tampa's compact city limits, grew virtually overnight. The idea of mass transit connecting these was almost unheard of. Cars, and new roads to carry them, were the answer. Sprawl wasn't a bad word; it was a new way of life.

The streetcar system, which connected the old neighborhoods of West Tampa, Ybor City, Hyde Park, Tampa Heights, Seminole Heights, Ballast Point and Port Tampa City to downtown Tampa, was seen as a relic of the past rather than a key part of the future. Tracks were pulled up and inventory was sold off soon after the last car entered the TECO carbarn.

We have changed as a city and as a society in those intervening 63 years. The streetcar system was revived, in a very abbreviated way, in October 2002. The current system connects downtown Tampa and Ybor City, but the new streetcar is more tourist attraction than commuter transport. The time it takes to travel between downtown and Ybor -- about 20 minutes -- is unacceptable to many. Part of the reason it takes so long is that streetcars are not given priority in traffic. Cars still rule the roads.

There has been a lot of talk of late concerning mass transit in Florida, specifically high speed rail crisscrossing the state. If we are going to have efficient mass transit connecting Florida's cities, those cities need to have effective intra-urban transportation connecting business and population centers. Perhaps it is time to look to the past for the answer. We probably cannot return to the streetcar system of yesteryear, but maybe there is something to be learned from a system that carried generations of Tampans to work, play, school, and to their homes, every day for over 60 years.

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TBHC Joins the 'Eco.lution.'

The Tampa Bay History Center is proud to be a presenting sponsor of ECO.lution ’09. This week-long series of events focused on building a greener Tampa Bay comes to Cotanchobee Park on Saturday, April 25th.

ECO.Festival, presented in partnership with Mise en Place and the Tampa Bay History Center, brings local vendors to downtown Tampa’s Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park for a day of local music, organic and gourmet foods and fun, to promote and celebrate Tampa’s riverfront and the local business that make up the soul of our city. Admission to ECO.lution ’09 is free and will feature eco-oriented activities, live performances from local musicians, as well as presentations from a variety of speakers in the Tampa Bay History Center’s TECO Hall.

Be sure to stop by our booth in Cotanchobee Park to pick up a coupon for discounted admission to the History Center during Saturday’s festivities. The History Center will serve as the primary location for ECO.Festival’s series of free informational talks and presentations. Throughout the day, lectures and panel discussions in TECO Hall will address the city’s past, present and future in relation to the river and the Downtown area. Speakers include:

Session 1 - 10:30AM – 11:30AM – The Waterfront City: The History of Tampa’s Downtown Development
Rodney Kite-Powell – Tampa Bay History Center

Rodney Kite-Powell is the Saunders Foundation Curator of History at the Tampa Bay History Center, where he joined the staff in 1994. His academic degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in History from the University of Florida and a Master of Arts in History from the University of South Florida. Born and raised in Tampa, he has written extensively on the history of Tampa and Hillsborough County. In addition to his duties at the History Center, Mr. Kite-Powell is an adjunct professor of history at the University of Tampa, where he teaches a course on the history of Florida.

Emanuel Leto Bio – Tampa Bay History Center

Emanuel Leto is the Program Outreach Coordinator for the Tampa Bay History Center. He is also the Editor of Cigar City Magazine, a local history publication focusing on the Tampa Bay Area. Before joining the History Center, he served as Assistant Director of the Ybor City Museum Society, where he was responsible for public and educational programming including Otras Voces: The Radical and Alternative Press in Ybor City; Tampa y Cuba: The 500 Year Connection; and Urban Renewal in Ybor City, among other exhibits. A Tampa native, Emanuel is a member of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the American Institute of Architects Cultural Heritage Committee, and the City of Tampa Enterprise Zone Agency Community Board.

Session 2 – 1:00PM – 2:00PM – The River and Civic Connectedness

Phil Compton – Sierra Club / Friends of the River

Phil Compton is the Regional Representative of the Sierra Club’s Florida Regional Office (i.e. state headquarters) in St. Petersburg. Phil is also Chair of the Friends of the River, a grassroots citizens’ group in Tampa that advocates the restoration of the health and beauty of Tampa’s Lower Hillsborough River.

Mary Szafraniec – Southwest Water Improvement and Management Program
Mary Szafraniec is an Environmental Scientist with
Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) focusing on water quality restoration. Before joining SWFWMD, Szafraniec worked as an Aquatic Biologist, specializing in benthic macroinvertebrate and aquatic vegetation taxonomy at the Department of Environmental Protection.

Session 3 – 3:00PM – 4:00PM – Connecting Tampa Through Transit

Beth Alden – Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization

Ms. Alden is a certified planner and Team Leader with the Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization. She holds a Master's in Planning from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor's in Environmental Design & Architecture from North Carolina State University. In the last ten years her work in Hillsborough County and West Central Florida has focused on regional coordination in transit planning; public participation and consensus building; environmental justice & plans for the disadvantaged; livable communities & roadways; and the incorporation of public transit, pedestrian and bicycle systems in growth management strategies and tools.

Cassandra Ecker – Jacobs Engineering / TBARTA

Cassandra Ecker is a Transportation Planning Group Manager for Jacobs Engineering in Tampa, Florida, and the consultant team Project Manager for the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority Regional Transportation Master Plan project. As Project Manager, Ms. Ecker provides technical support to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) on the development of the TBARTA Master Plan, including oversight of the public engagement activities related to the project. She holds a master’s degree in urban planning and a bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and the American Planning Association.

Ed Crawford – Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART)

Ed Crawford has been with the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART) for 10 years. He serves as agency liaison to the Florida Legislature and U.S. Congress. He oversees all of HART’s media, outreach and marketing activities. Prior to coming to HART he was the executive director of the Tampa-based Alliance for Modern Transit & Livable Communities, Inc., a private, non-profit group which advocated for smarter land-use and transportation planning. He served on the Hillsborough MPO Citizens’ Advisory Committee which he chaired for four years before starting with HART. He is a long time advocate for alternative transportation modes and served as chairman of the Hillsborough Greenways and Trails Committee for eight years. He also served on the MPO’s Bicycle/Pedestrian Advisory Committee for 10 years. In 2000, Ed was selected for a travel fellowship by the German Marshall Fund to study transit, traffic calming, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and urban design in Europe. He has spoken extensively on greenways, smart growth, urban design, transit, traffic calming, and community visioning. He is a native of Tampa, a graduate of the University of South Florida with a B.A. in Political Science, and is a certified planner.