MARCH/APRIL 2009 LISA M. FIGUEREDO
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PRESIDENT & PUBLISHER
VIENNA FUENTE
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VICE PRESIDENT
EMANUEL LETO
| SUSAN CUESTA
EDITOR
COPY EDITOR
ART & PHOTOGRAPHY CONTRIBUTORS HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY • TAMPA BAY HISTORY CENTER THE FLORIDA STATE ARCHIVES UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE’S EVENT PHOTOGRAPHER, DAVID CAPOTE ON THE COVER THE AYRES DINER ON KENNEDY BOULEVARD IN THE 1960S
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John Cinchett John is a third generation Tampa native. His family operated one of Tampa’s most successful neon sign companies during the 1950s and 1960s and documented their work through photographs that have become a pictorial record of Tampa’s growth and expansion during that period. Cinchett's new book, Vintage Tampa Signs and Scenes is out now on Arcadia Press.
Paul Guzzo Paul has been a journalist in Tampa for the past 10 years. He has also written and produced a number of award-winning independent films, including Charlie Wall The Documentary.
Joe Howden Joe Howden has been a neighborhood and community activist in Ybor City since 1991. He is the founder of the Historic Ybor Neighborhood Civic Association and served as the co-chair of the Ybor Coalition from 2000 to 2004. Joe currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Ybor City Development Corporation and as the Chairman of the Barrio Latino Commission.
Dawn Morgan Dawn is a freelance writer based in Tampa. An advocate of quality journalism and community media, Dawn has been a radioactivist at 88.5 WMNF for the past four years, over the course of which she's volunteered as a producer, reporter, and early morning deejay. She's also volunteered around town at various nonprofit media outlets including WEDU, WUSF, and TBCN, and served 1700 hours as a literacy tutor at Cleveland Elementary School as a member of AmeriCorps.
Andy Schrader Andy is a freelance travel writer and author of EuroStumble: The College Student's Guide to Europe. He is a civil engineering graduate from the University of South Florida.
Printed in the U.S.A Cigar City Magazine, Inc. • P.O. Box 18613 • Tampa, Florida 33679 • Phone (813) 878-6800 e-mail: info@cigarcitymagazine.com • www.CigarCityMagazine.com ©2009, Cigar City Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use without written permission of the publisher, of editorial, pictorial, or design content, in any manner is prohibited. The opinions of writers commissioned for articles are not necessarily those of the publisher. All advertising is subject to approval before acceptance. Publisher reserves the right to refuse any advertisement for any reason whatsoever. Publisher assumes no responsibility for claims made by advertisers. A selfaddressed, postage paid envelope for return must accompany manuscripts, photographs, and other materials submitted. Cigar City Magazine is not responsible for loss, damage, or any other injury to unsolicited originals unless specifically requested to do so by Cigar City Magazine in writing. You can write to us at Cigar City Magazine, P.O. Box 18613, Tampa, Florida 33679 or via email at info@cigarcitymagazine.com. All letters, emails and their contents sent to Cigar City Magazine become the sole property of the publisher and may be used and published in any manner whatsoever without limit and without obligation or liability to the author thereof. Cigar City ™ is a trademark and the the sole property of Lisa M. Figueredo
FROM THE EDITOR EMANUEL LETO| EDITOR@CIGARCITYMAGAZINE.COM
The Floridan Hotel in the 1930s
It's Alive! It's Alive! After years of promises, studies, false starts, and failed projects, there's finally a faint pulse coursing through the arteries of downtown Tampa. Over the last six or seven years I've stood back and skeptically watched parking garages being bulldozed, condominium towers go up, and the lights of new businesses flicker on. In John Cinchette's new book, Vintage Tampa Signs and Scenes, we're reminded of what we have lost. The vitality of downtown radiates from Cinchette's archive of 1950s -era photos. Looking at them, I imagine young hipsters walking along downtown's neon-drenched streets, wearing hats, looking good. The cynic in me, however, is forced to point out that downtown's recent renaissance hasn't all gone according to plan. For every Skypoint, Element, and Residences on Franklin, there's a Trump Tower, a Kress Building, Maas Brothers. Plus, The Global Economic Meldown isn't helping any. Still, as contributor Paul Guzzo points out in his report on the Floridan Hotel, downtown is a long way from the ghostown of the recent past. When I returned to Tampa from parts unknown in the fall of 2002, The Hub was downtown's only, lonely outpost. In just seven years, residential developement has increased and it's actually possible to spend an entire evening hopp ing from one hotspot to another. From the Jerk Hut to Spain Tapas Bar, from Paniniateca to the Tampa Theater, Taps to the Fly Bar. And then - you dirty lush - a cab ride home. Also promising is The Heights Project, quietly rising out of the
ashes of the old Tampa Armature Works building where 7th Avenue meets the Hillsborough River in Historic Tampa Heights. Dawn Morgan provides us with an overview of a development that, once completed, could change the face of Tampa's oldest suburb. Finally, for the uninitiated, for the inexperienced, for those unfortunate sheltered souls, we unleash upon you the unflappable, indefatigable Activist, Resident, Artist, Ladies Man, Teller of Tales and Chairman of the Board, Mr. Joe Howden. Few can contest Mr. Howden's commitment to the Ybor City Neighborhood and in his insightful treatise, Mr. Howden leads us on a journey through the recent past, chronicling the history of the Barrio Latino Commission, the group charged with preserving the architectural heritage of Ybor City. Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you Joe Howden. See You Around the City!
Emanuel Leto Editor
Emanuel Leto
CONTENTS FEATURES
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Vintage Tampa Signs & Scenes
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Nano and the Map
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On the Waterfront: A New Vision for Historic Tampa Heights
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The Floridan
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Protecting the Barrio
EXTRAS
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12 23 42 54 56 60 62
Cigar Label History
Lost Landmarks
Looking Back
CafĂŠ con Leche
The Kitchen
On The Town with Capote
Mama Knows
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Visit our web site at www.CigarCityMagazine.com 10
CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE
American Citizen This cigar label, printed circa 1910, uses patriotism as a marketing tool to sell American Citizen Brand Cigars. Patriotism was a popular theme for turn-of the-century era cigar companies. Labels commonly featured presidents, soldiers, scenes from famous battles and Uncle Sam to sell cigars.
Label and text provided Vintage Labels & Collectibles. This original cigar box label is available for purchase through Vintage Labels & Collectibles at (813) 220-1474.
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CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE
BY JOHN CINCHETT
Burger Queen 1957 This neon sign was a real work of art for Burger Queen in 1957, located at the corner of North Florida and Osborne Avenues, in Seminole Heights. This drive-in was popular with high school kids from nearby Hillsborough High and was also a favorite stop on the way to the movies on Friday nights during the 1950s. 16
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owntown Tampa was a shining model of the American landscape in the 1950s. On every street corner you could find the best jewelry
stores, hat shops and restaurants that Tampa had to offer. Some of these places had been around long enough to see three generations of families shopping at their store. It was an exciting place to be and everyone enjoyed their shopping visits to downtown. Within these scenic images are great details to enjoy, so remember to look carefully at not only the designs of the neon signs; but also the scene around each business and street corner. Many hidden treasures can be found as you look into these amazing images, like the common attire of the day and those fabulous cars parked along the street. These images of Tampa's bustling downtown will send you back to those wonderful days of shopping trips with friends, visiting favorite stores and stopping in the luncheonette for a slice of apple pie before you headed home. Maybe there was a new show playing at the theatre or a sale going on at Maas Brothers - it was all there for you in downtown Tampa and these scenes, from the new book, Vintage Tampa Signs and Scenes, have captured that moment in time.
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Ayres Diner 1964 Here is the Ayres Diner at 603 Lafayette Avenue (now Kennedy Boulevard) pictured in 1964. During the 1950s this was a popular dining spot and was one of several dining-car style diners around Tampa. Customers could stop in anytime to enjoy a hot cup of coffee and a sandwich on their favorite stool at the counter.
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Mangel’s Department Store 1959 This spectacular photograph was taken during a busy Christmas shopping season in Downtown Tampa at the Mangel’s Department Store Building on the corner of Franklin and Twiggs Streets in 1959. Mangel's was an exclusive ladies department store.
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Siamese Cat 1960 Here is Downtown Tampa's newest and finest cocktail lounge - The Siamese Cat Lounge in 1960. This bar was located at 1118 North Franklin Street and you can bet this club had no problems with mice with that giant neon cat over their entrance!
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Kinney Shoes and Pollers Dress Shop 1949 This vintage 1949 photograph of Franklin Street is taken of three storefronts with signage designed by Cinchett Neon Signs: Pollers Dress Shop, Kinney Shoes and The Walk-Over Bootery. This photograph was taken from across the street, in front of the Kress Building between Polk and Cass Streets.
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Remember
LOST LANDMARK Can you identify this Lost Landmark?
You can win a Cigar City Magazine t-shirt by correctly identifying this landmark. Simply mail the answer and your contact information to Cigar City Magazine at P.O. Box 18613, Tampa, Florida 33679 by April 1, 2009. All correct entries will be entered into a drawing and one name will be selected as the winner. Good luck! Previous Lost Landmark: The Boys Club of West Tampa
Can you identify the buildings in this well-known downtown block?
From our winner, Sam Leone of Tampa The building brought back a lot of memories as I spent many hours there. It was constructed in the late 1920s and it was used as a TB Sanitarium. The building’s address was 3029 West Laurel Street. Around 1954, they moved into their new facilities in Drew Filed. It was at this time it was turned into the The Boys Club of West Tampa. About 1951, a new boys club was built on the same site and the old structure was demolished. It continued as a boys club until it was taken over by the expressway around 2004.
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A New Recruit: Camp Lee, Virginia, 1942 24
CIGAR CITY MAGAZINE
ano N & The Map
By Andy Schrader
I dug into the spare bedroom closet, hands held high and He closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes at me a little. He standing on my tiptoes. Past the winter coats, past the once-worn then looked past me to his wife Nane for a translation. wedding party dresses, behind the broken record player. There. “The map, Daddy.” Andy wants you to sign it. Tu firma. Tu There was the box. Nano's old box. I brought it down gingerly, FIRMA.” Now he understood. balancing it on the tips of my fingers as if it were a crystal vase or “Oh yes, I'll sign it. But I'm not putting my rank; I'm not puta hot cookie sheet. Clear plastic sides, blue plastic top. I could ting 'Private' in front of my name.” He then went back to looking make out the newspapers and the small cloth bags. at the map. He traced his own wrinkled finger over the borders, There was a newspaper clipping from the Challenger tragedy. the bridges, the flags and oceans. I just stood there with an Snow in Florida. The Persian Gulf War. Back, down, into the old uncapped pen in my hand. stuff. 8 mm family movies, dog tags. A Nazi arm band. Nano's It had been lunchtime when I'd first brought the map out. relics from the war. Nano wouldn't really talk about the war Now Nane was boiling milk on the stove for coffee. My wife was unless you asked him. He might say how cold he was during the stepping through Nane's sunny backyard, fondling the orange Battle of the Bulge. Or how many times he went AWOL and tree. Nano was still looking at the map. Now it was my turn to made it back to Tampa for a few days with his friends. Not much else. Nano was reading the paper when I brought the map out. Nano served with the 2nd Armored Division, Patton's division, He looked up when I put it on the table and he opened called “Hell on Wheels.” He had been a mechanic who took care of the tanks. And now, after 60 years, I'm looking at a map showing everywhere he and his division look over at Nane, silently asking for an intercession. “The map, went. I was going to take it from him. After all, he had said I could Daddy, tu firma!” Nano narrowed his eyes at her. have it. “You know, Nane,” I said. “It's alright. I don't need the Nano was reading the paper when I brought the map out. He map.” looked up when I put it on the table and he opened his mouth as “Sho,” Nane said. if to speak. 'Sho' is the Nane-speak equivalent of 'shut your mouth; There was a pause, then… a dog barked outside. you're saying something stupid.' “He don't need the map,” she “I see you got it,” he said. “That's the map that will show you went on. “He said you could have it. He just likes to look at it everywhere I walked through Europe.” Norfolk, Virginia. Training when you get it out of the box.” back in Florida. Waiting, waiting, in the Bronx. I traced my finger He was still looking at it as we talked. I finally decided that along the dotted line east across the Atlantic towards Europe. taking the map would be like taking his cat away, or his parakeet. North Africa. Sicily. England, France, Belgium, and then into I wasn't going to be the one to do it. But Nane insisted, and Nano Germany. Into the past and world history. He jabbed his finger finally signed the map right in the middle, while looking at his dog into the map, silently mouthing the locations. He gave me no tags for the old address he'd had in the Bronx. I would take it the details about great battles, the hand grenades, the forced march- next week and frame it, but I was going to bring it back and give es. Only, “I got into trouble here. And here. And here.” He to him as a present. After explaining this to my wife she replied, almost forgot one place in France. “Here too.” “But you've wanted that map forever! He told you that you could “Can you sign it, Nano? Can you put your name, and divi- take it!” sion, and rank? And I'll frame it and put it up in my house.” “I'll get it later,” I said. Another long pause. I heard the washing machine running. “He told you that you could have it.” “What?” “I'll get it later.” “CAN YOU SIGN IT FOR ME? I'LL PUT IT UP!” Inside, Nano was still looking at the map.
his mouth as if to speak.
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In many ways, 1883 marked the beginning of the City of Tampa. The old Fort Brooke military reservation was opened to civilian settlement causing a flurry of real estate speculation. Henry B. Plant's railroad line reached Tampa. The Tampa Board of Trade invited cigar manufacturers to move their factories from Key West. Vicente Martinez Ybor took the city fathers up on their offer and opened the first factory in 1886. The Cigar City was born. Master cigar-makers from Cuba and Key West moved into cottages built around the cigar factories. The industry grew rapidly, stimulating the city's economic development in all areas. Tampa's days as a sleepy village of 720 people were over. West Tampa's birth came fast on the heels of this new burst of economic activity. Hugh C. Macfarlane (1851-1935), a transplanted Scotsman, moved to Tampa in 1883 to practice law and was appointed City Attorney in 1887. One thing led to another, and in 1892, Macfarlane purchased and platted 200 acres of land just west of the Hillsborough River for development. Macfarlane began offering factory sites and three story brick buildings to manufacturers. The first factory was a failure because workers refused to cross the Hillsborough River on boat to reach
Street. These clubs provided social, recreational, music, dance, theatre, education, medical clinics and social services "from cradle to grave." The mutual aid societies played an important role in the immigrants' adjustment to their new world. Early West Tampa families enjoyed a rich social life that included literature read daily by lectores (readers), social clubs, sports clubs, cafes and restaurants. Spanish-language newspapers flourished. Families enjoyed park and beach trips on Tampa Electric's Streetcar system to Ballast Point Park, Sulphur Springs, DeSoto Park, La Columna Park and Macfarlane Park, which opened in 1909. They swam at Frazier Beach, at the end of today's Kennedy Boulevard and ate crab enchilada at Rocky Point Beach. And in 1913, the County's first and only remaining Carnegie Free Library opened on Howard Avenue. By the early 1900's, West Tampa had become a bustling City. Indeed, West Tampa was Florida's fifth largest city in 1905. Growth and prosperity continued for the next two decades but the winds of change blew strong in the 1920's. In 1925, exercising its new found political power that came with its own prosperity; the City of Tampa annexed the City of West
the wilds of West Tampa. So Macfarlane, with several other investors, built an iron drawbridge across the Hillsborough River at Fortune Street and later financed a streetcar line. Dozens of cigar companies and thousands of people moved into the new city resulting in capital investments of over $2 million in West Tampa, a staggering sum in those bygone days. Three short years later, on May 18, 1895, West Tampa was incorporated, boasting 3,500 residents with businesses and community services. At the same time, Tampa's cigar-makers supported the Cuban independence revolution by pledging one day's wages per week for the cause. The message to begin the uprising on the island was delivered in a cigar rolled at the O'Halloran Factory in West Tampa. West Tampa got a further boost when Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders trained at Benjamin Field, the current site of the Howard Avenue Armory. The boom years produced several important institutions in the new city. In 1894 Cubans built Sociedad Cespedes, a three-story social club that loomed above the business district at Main and Albany. The Centro Espanol de West Tampa at Howard Avenue and Cherry Street served arts and cultural needs. In 1916 Sicilians organized to build the Sicilian Club (La Sicilia); the building remains at the corner of Howard and Spruce
Tampa. Next came the Crash of October 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression that caused infinite hardships on Tampa's cigar workers. Major layoffs led to many departing for New York City or Havana. WWII marked the end of the golden era of cigar manufacturing in Ybor and West Tampa. Powerful societal, economic and geographic forces had profound impacts on West Tampa. For example, Urban Renewal destroyed an entire neighborhood known as Roberts City in the early 60s. The state of Florida constructed I-275 through the heart of West Tampa and the lure of Tampa's expanding suburbs attracted many West Tampa residents. Consequently, West Tampa lost many important small businesses, further eroding the community's social fabric. Today, West Tampa remains a neighborhood with a rich legacy of traditional and historic buildings and an urban pattern that creates a village within a city. Add to this its grid pattern, strategic location between the Central Business District and Westshore Business District, healthy inventory of traditional buildings, and a growing demand for urban living by people from all walks of like, and it is easy to see why West Tampa is poised for an urban renaissance.
Join The West Tampa Chamber of Commerce Today P. O. Box 4946 • Tampa, FL 33677 • 813-253-2056 • info@westtampachamber.com • www.WestTampaChamber.com
The Heights, Tampa Downtown Perspective
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On the banks of the Hillsborough River, the original streetcar barn, located at the end of 7th Avenue, was reborn as Tampa Armature Works following the demise of Tampa's streetcar system in 1946.
A mile north of downtown tucked behind a crook in the Hillsborough River, an old warehouse sits on torn up ground at 1910 N. Ola Ave in Tampa Heights. Inside, mock ups of what the place could be, done by USF architecture students last semester, line the walls. They're accompanied by sketches and photographs of the empty space, created during a recent field trip by neighboring Blake High School students. The place is otherwise empty, save for the 10-ton Niles crane that has occupied the building for decades. “It was working two years ago,” says Darren Booth, development manager of a 48-acre $500 million waterfront mixed-use redevelopment project simply known as “The Heights.” In 2006, he and his partners at the Heights of Tampa, LLC acquired the idle crane and the 70,000 square-foot building in which it rests inside of, Tampa Armature Works. All were on display early last December when ground was broken across the street for the first vertical construction for the mammoth project. The vast space, built in 1911, was originally the Trolley Barn, the place where Tampa's electric streetcars slept after a hard days work. The trolley debuted in Tampa in 1892, shuttling residents to their cigar rolling jobs in Ybor and shopping downtown. According to TECO, ridership in Tampa peaked at 24 million in 1926. But as World War II came and went, cars killed the demand for services, and by 1946 the trolley was no longer the preferred method of travel. Since then, the mass transit that once contributed to Tampa's vital growth and hopping urbanism slipped so far out of mind that it's become a foreign concept to the car-obsessed general population, and arguably one of the gaffes that holds the city back from urban greatness. Having an industrial warehouse on prime waterfront property would be another one. After the trolley barn sold, the waterfront fell to disrepair and decay. Big barges used to tie up on the docks, dredging companies polluted the water, and 70 tons of debris (including a recently unearthed Model A Ford) contaminated the site. Tampa Heights, the first suburb of Tampa, also suffered. Once a
bustling neighborhood, Tampa Heights' residents got in their cars and relocated to the blossoming suburbs of Davis Island, Carrollwood and Temple Terrace. The influx of new commuters led to the demand for highways and I-275 paved right through their old stomping grounds. Brenda Christian is a ten-year Tampa Heights resident and realtor who specializes in historic properties. She says, “Most older homes were destroyed, and there was no historic commission then. But at that time they were 30, 40 years old and wouldn't have been considered landmarks.” Many other houses that remained weresectioned off into multi-unit rental properties or sat vacant and vandalized. “TV commercials showed moving to the suburbs, getting a little more land. People spread out a little bit. With Tampa spreading out, 275 coming through definitely divided neighborhoods,” she continues, adding, it wasn't entirely a bad division as it “created more commerce. But also created exodus.” For decades, and to this day, the median income for the neighborhood was half of that of the city's, or below. Rental properties account for about half of the housing in the area, and in the last 20 years children have become the largest demographic. The Tampa Police Department, once headquartered on nearby Tampa and Henderson, relocated to downtown in 1997. “You know it's bad when the police pick up and leave,” Booth jokes. In 1999, the city started to tackle Tampa Heights' problems by designating the former TPD site and surrounding area a community redevelopment area (CRA), in an attempt to invite development and encourage neighborhood revitalization. The city received many proposals, including one to make the area into a gated waterfront community in the midst of a ghetto, but nothing stuck for long. In the meantime, residents and business owners of the active Tampa Heights Civic Association made an agreement with the City of Tampa to be kept abreast of changes in their neighborhood and to have their voices heard. In 2002, Tampa Heights became one of the first neighborhoods in Tampa to adopt a comprehensive plan, their own vision of what the neighborhood is and what it could become. MARCH/APRIL 2009
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Francis Roy is the current president of the THCA, and a resi- cinder blocks and air conditioning wall units. Obviously they're not dent since 1980. He describes the neighborhood as he first found it historic. It's easy to think grand things, but it's just an old building,” as “not the best,” but chose it anyway for its central location. Then he says briskly walking its length. He sees energy efficient he fell in love with a house on Ross Street. windows replacing the old ones, modeled in a similar style of archi“On Ross, everyone lost their door mats. Stolen to sleep on.” But tecture, double or triple insulated. Solar panels on the roof. Stacks of he says, “People in the neighborhood tend to get involved with some- reclaimed brick, piled up around the north side of the building, wait thing that affects them personally. It's a community that can rally to to be re-laid in the streets. “In years to come,” says Booth, “from go down before city council.” Roy now “knows everybody. Their cats North Boulevard to the park, people will be strolling down to the and dogs,” and has seen a slowdown in transients, crime and drug Performing Arts Center at night. The Armature building is the traffic, and says the area is not as bad as it used to be. center of the site...It'll be that gathering place, the front porch with a The City Council, which heads the CRA Board, appointed the city skyline and waterfront.” Tampa Heights Riverfront CRA Advisory Committee to help lead The fundamental idea behind the Heights is an urban mixed use the new development. walkable community where Brenda Christian is currently residents won't need to get chair. “Our goal was to direct into their cars because everydevelopment so that it thing they'll need and want meshed, to keep a developer will be outside their front from coming in with plans door; or close enough to that didn't flow,” Christian downtown for walking, bikexplained. She's volunteered ing, public transit, or water in the neighborhood in varitaxi, which already makes ous capacities for five or six runs from Cafe Dufrain to years and says whenever she Rick's on the River. “Gotta sells a home in Tampa or think where it's gonna be 50Seminole Heights: “The first 100 years from now. It will all thing I do is tell them how Developers of The Heights envision boat slips, offices, restaurants, and a hotel all surrounding be skyline. Downtown they can get involved. We all the original streetcar barn, which will be restored, possibly as a streetcar museum. Tampa will be the smallest have busy, busy lives. It's difficult to see ourselves as having any buildings.” impact, but those of us involved in the association know how much It also includes a second historic property, the decrepit Tampa we have.” Pumping Station, which partially houses the city's TV station (which Christian likens the Heights project to cities that have an was traded in exchange for the property that lines the water's edge, desalready established waterfront, like Ft. Lauderdale and San Antonio. ignated to the city-owned Riverwalk). “It's going to change the face of our downtown,” which she calls Booth now stands between the crumbling building and Water “somewhat unkempt. It still looks kind of abandoned. This is gonna Works Park, where a spring that once quenched the thirst of Tampa bring life, something to do. And we'll have it here in the neighbor- Heights still flows. “In a year or two,” he says, “it'll be a cool place. hood.” Envision tables, trees. A Tavern on the Green. Rowers go by. Joggers in “Lots of community leaders have had visions of what it [the the park. Boats coming in and out. When visitors come to Tampa in five Heights] could become,” says Darren Booth as he drives along the years, this is what they'll think of when they think of Riverwalk. When CRA's northern perimeter on Palm Avenue. The Heights of Tampa, I think of South Street Seaport in New York, I think of the old ships tied LLC met up with those community leaders in early 2004. “Because up there, the Brooklyn Bridge. In Seattle, the bronze pig and guys throwthe developer's attitudes were way above any minimal expectations,” ing fish [at Pike's Place Market].” their proposal for a mixed-use development began to gain support The Heights Master Plan lays out specific guidelines and a timeline says city employee Michael Hatchett, Urban Development Manager for the proposed mixed-use (residential, commercial, and open spaces) of the Tampa Heights Riverfront and Central Park Redevelopment $500 million development. Economic and Urban Development. “The Heights team did a “The development agreement is pretty tight in sequence and order, phenomenal job of working with the community,” Hatchett added. to protect the city and the community's interest, with a time frame of The project was approved in 2006. components,” says Hatchett. The plan first called for all By then, the LLC had acquired most of the 48 acre-CRA, from infrastructure (horizontal construction: sewers, roads, water) Palm down to I-275, and the N Blvd bridge east to Tampa Street, and followed by residential, then non-residential units. The housing crisis of the city has approved their master plan for the new community. 2008, however, took everyone by surprise and plans had to be changed. Booth isn't the only one who's hopeful. Over on Palm and Ross, An amendment was made last summer to have the first groundbreaking “urban pioneers are already cleaning up,” Booth points out. “They're for commercial office space instead. In December, the first vertical conrestoring their homes. New houses were also built, on the expecta- struction started for a two-story office building for local construction tion of redevelopment.” contractor, the Beck Group. Booth's vision for the Armature space? Possibly a hotel lobby, a Thus far, the Beck building is the only vertical construction couple of restaurants, trolley museum, wine bar, jazz club, office approved. “The ball is in the court of the developers now,” says Hatchett, space. “The exterior bones will stay the same. Gone will be the who waits for the permit requests to see what will go up next. 30
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The Floridan Hotel The Resurrection of Downtown Tampa’s Crown Jewel By Paul Guzzo
The red neon “Open” sign in the window of Franklin Street News Stand would flicker on at 7 a.m., followed by the neon signs for the news stand's neighbors - the Shoe Hospital and Carmen's Sandwich Shop - shortly thereafter. A block away, the homeless people sleeping in front of Sacred Heart Church would wake up, roll up their blankets and seek shade from the hot sun. And then, for the next two hours, downtown would lay quiet, waiting for the rush of attorneys, judges, politicians and financial analysts who made downtown their home from 9 to 5, Monday through Friday. Packed into their offices, they left for only an hour each day to eat at one of the few restaurants scattered throughout downtown, and then disappear when work ended. The neon signs would shut off. The homeless would return to Sacred Heart's lawn, and the downtown would once again become a ghost town.
This 19-story, 164,000-square-foot hotel located in the 82year-old Floridan Hotel building at 905 N. Florida Ave. will house 213 hotel rooms, a bar, a restaurant, retail space, a ballroom and a convention center. “This is going to be Tampa's Waldorf Astoria,” said hotel spokesperson Lisa Shasteen. Clearwater hotel developer Antonios Markopoulos purchased the building in 2005 for approximately $6 million and has since personally poured millions more into making it a nearly exact recreation of the historic 1920s-era Floridan Hotel. Its original bar and marble staircases have been restored, as has its artistic tiled ceilings displaying green wreathes, purple lilies and yellow pears. An old mailbox featuring mail slots for every room in the hotel was found, cleaned and will be used again. Even the original Floridan Hotel sign has been refurbished and again adorns the exterior of the building. “We're saving as much of the original hotel as we can,” said Shasteen. That which could not be restored has been recreated. Replicas of the original golden chandeliers have been installed. The wooden window arches were rotted, so new ones were constructed. Handmade iron railings resemble those that once protected the stairway, as have the wooden balconies that once overlooked the first floor. “It will look as close to the original hotel as possible,” said Shasteen. “And it hasn't been easy.” When Markopoulos purchased the building, it had been abandoned for 30 years. Crows and buzzards shared the hotel with squatters, who took over the suites and turned the building into their own personal dormitory. A suite on the 17th floor was turned into a bar for the tenants. Another room stored a number of bicycles. Numerous rooms were wallpapered with comic strips. “When he bought the hotel, people told him it was an impossible project. But one thing I learned is never tell him it's impossible. He doesn't like to hear the word no,” said Shasteen of Markopoulos, who sold the five hotels he owned in Clearwater, got bored and decided he needed a new challenge. “And this building is a challenge.” Despite working on restoring the hotel for four years, no completion date has been set. The floors have been stabilized, the first coat of plaster has been laid on the walls, the historic features have been restored, but for the most part the building is still a shell. There is much work to be done.
“When he bought the hotel,
people told him it was an impossible project. Up until a few years ago, this was the average weekday scene in downtown Tampa. Today, though, this once forgotten area of the city is bustling with life 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Condominium towers adorning seemingly every corner of downtown Tampa are filling up with residents. To accommodate these downtown denizens, new restaurants, bars and cafés are popping up around the towers. A new Tampa Museum of Art will open this fall. Electric golf cart taxis shuttle people about. Business at the Tampa Theatre has never been better. Even venerable dive bar The Hub opened new digs in 2002. Yes, downtown Tampa is alive again. There are reasons to live and play in downtown. Vehicular and pedestrian traffic fills the streets and sidewalks from the early hours of the morning until, well, the early hours of the morning. But there is still one piece of the downtown puzzle that is incomplete, still one section of downtown that resembles the ghost town of a few years ago - Florida Avenue from the south side of Zach Street to I-275. No new businesses have opened up on this seven block stretch. No condominium towers are being built. Not even the presence of the Federal Courthouse has been able to resurrect this section of downtown. Since the renaissance of downtown began, this area of Florida Avenue has desperately sought a cornerstone business. For years no one stepped up. Hope has finally arrived, though. The Floridan Palace is coming. 34
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The Floridan Hotel in the 1930s MARCH/APRIL 2009
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The lobby and check-in desk.
When the hotel is complete, Shasteen believes it will be the cornerstone business the area needs. She believes the attorneys, judges and jurists at the nearby federal courthouse will dine at the hotel's restaurant. She believes weddings at Sacred Heart Church will use its 10,000-square-foot ballroom. She believes businessmen will use its 11,000-square-foot convention center. She believes downtown residents will flock to its posh bar. And she believes men and women from around the world will stay in its first class accommodations. “A lot of people who perform at the Performing Arts Center want to stay somewhere special, somewhere unique to Tampa,” said Shasteen. “This will be the place.” The restoration is already having a positive effect on the neighborhood. Shasteen was recently inside the old Kress building, located across the street from the hotel, with its owner Jeanette Jason. Shasteen said the Kress building is in better shape that the Floridan was, and Jason is discussing renovating it for either office or retail space. 36
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“When that happens, I think this other businesses will open up and this part of downtown will be full of life again,” said Shasteen. “The area around the hotel used to be very busy,” remembered Gus Arencibia, who bartended at the Floridan Hotel's Sapphire Bar for 20 years. “I used to meet my wife near the hotel and we'd walk to Maas Brothers and Kress and Tampa Theatre and all the other stores. We couldn't walk one block without stopping to talk to at least 10 people we knew.” And the epicenter of the downtown activity was the Floridan Hotel. By day, businessmen and gangsters visited the Sapphire Room for a sandwich and one drink. “They never got drunk,” said Arencibia. “One drink only. And there was never a rare moment.” The Sapphire Bar's daytime clientele was famous for making crazy bets among one another. Two men once made a $100 bet they could drive from the hotel to the Seabreeze Restaurant in Palma Ceia without stopping their car once, rolling through all stop signs and red lights.
An advertisment posted of the Floridan Hotel
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The dining room.
“And they did it,” laughed Arencibia And then there was the time gangster Jimmy Lumia bet someone $50 that he could buy a ticket at the Tampa Theatre without getting out of his car. “He drove up the sidewalk to the ticket office and motioned for the ticket girl to bring him a ticket,” remembered Arencibia. “And then he drove back to the hotel and won the bet.” By night, GIs danced alongside Tampa's elite and the hotel's celebrity guests, which over the years included Jimmy Stewart, Jack Dempsey, Elvis Presley and Charlton Heston. The Floridan Hotel was also where Gary Cooper wooed actress Lupe Velez in 1930 while they stayed there during the filming of “Hell Harbor.” A dress code was firmly enforced - women had to wear a dress and men had to wear a jacket and tie. Local musical legends like the late Columbia Restaurant owner and violinist Cesar Gonzmart performed. Not even the house rule, which forbade women from sitting at the bar without a male escort, could keep them away. “There were so many women dancing that the Sapphire Room was renamed the Sure-fire Room by some of the local GIs,” explained Arencibia.
“My family lived in a three bedroom suite with a living room and kitchen and multiple bathrooms, so these weren't small suites we lived in,” explained 84-year-old Mary Jim Scott, who lived in the Floridan Hotel from age 2 - 24. Her father was hotel manager and their suite was on the 19th floor. “This was before apartments and condominiums were common. So we had a lot of people who rented suites full-time.” The hotel was a playground for Scott. Her father built her a playhouse and fishpond on the hotel roof, where she would spend much of her time. She'd climb on the walls and even swing by the hotel's sign, 20 stories up. “At the time, the hotel was the tallest building in Florida. I don't know how I didn't fall off,” she said. “Looking back, I'm lucky I didn't die.” One day, when she was 7 or 8 years old, she threw all her toys off the roof. When the desk clerk saw toys shattering all over the sidewalk, he immediately called Scott's father, who turned ghost white and rushed to the roof to stop his daughter. When not causing mischief on the roof, Scott was entertaining the permanent guests. With the help of her father's secretary, she MARCH/APRIL 2009
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A bar at the Floridan Hotel
published her own newspaper full of harmless gossip about the guests. “Oh, the stories were about where guests were going or where they were eating,” she said with a smile. “It was so simple, but the permanent guests seemed to like it.” She also performed plays in the mezzanine for everyone in the hotel. She would write the play, the engineers and maids would rig a curtain, and Scott and her friend and fellow resident Jackie would star. “We made all the employees and permanent guests come,” laughed Scott. “And there were a lot of employees - over 400. The hotel was like a small city. We had our own engineers, housekeepers, bell captains, bell boys, desk clerks, telephone operators and so on. We even had our own detective because with that many residents and guests we were sure to have problems. Nothing ever serious, though. Just small problems.” When the 1960s rolled in, the hotel began experiencing major problems. Suburban malls and shopping centers became the chic places to shop, sapping downtown Tampa of its patrons 40
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and the hotel of its regular diners and drinkers. Chain hotels took the Floridan's guests. In 1966, the Floridan closed as a commercial hotel and remained open for long-term renters only. By the early 1970s, suburban apartments became more common, providing renters with more options, and the Floridan soon served low-income tenants only. After several small fires in the 1980s, the hotel was closed and sat empty for the next three decades. Then, Markopoulos purchased the building in 2005. “And I couldn't be happier,” said Scott. “I can't wait for it to open.” Nor can the rest of downtown Tampa, as the Floridan Palace will be the final piece to the revitalization puzzle. Downtown Tampa is alive again and soon its crown jewel will be as well.
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PROTECTING THE BARRIO BY JOE HOWDEN
I purchased my Ybor City cigarmaker's casita in 1992. I had that there was, contained like a subplot within the story of Ybor been working in Ybor City for several years and its Latin ambience, City, a history of the BLC. It's a story of borrowing and blundering, distinct and evocative, had taken hold of me. The urban character but it's also a story of pride and the courageous convictions of of Ybor City was irresistible and I decided it was where I wanted to well-intentioned individuals who sought to protect and preserve live. As I settled into my tin-roofed wood frame cottage, the seduction Ybor City's physical and cultural history. I was as curious about grew deeper. I was (and continue to be) endlessly fascinated with the story of the BLC as much as I was curious about the birth the complex and colorful past of Ybor City. With each step in and of Ybor City. around my neighborhood, this unique history was like a ghost Ybor City developed as an immigrant factory "boom town" shadowing me. With each breath, the smells of Cuban food, roasting and became a raging economic engine fueled by the handmade coffee beans and cigars tantalized me. With each glance, the architec- cigar manufacturing business. Prior to Vincente Martinez ture of a proud people, expressing its magnificence and its humility, cap- Ybor's arrival in 1885, Tampa's economy was so bad the presitivated me. I had planted myself in a multi-ethnic, immigrant town whose roots ran very deep. I also began to understand the admonitions, stated in different ways, that our future path is made clearer by understanding where we have that our future path is made clearer by understanding been. It may not have been the past of my specific where we have been. forbearers, but it was the past of a place I now called home. By caring for this history, we create a salve that eases the discomfort of feeling lost in a constantly changing dent and board of the First National Bank of Tampa considered society, one that worships the "newest of the new." leaving. Looking to relocate his cigar business away from Key Like so many others, I had little experience with or understanding West, Ybor purchased 40 acres of land just northeast of downof historic preservation and I became eager to learn. Unforeseen town. Soon, other cigar manufacturers arrived while Ybor conproblems arise when you tinker with a historic structure, much less tinued to purchase and develop land. Under Ybor's direction, the patterned rhythms of an entire district, and I found myself with civil engineer and fellow Spaniard, Gavino Gutierrez, laid the few guideposts on the road to correctly caring for my historic house. first street grid of Ybor City. The city blocks measured 200 feet I soon discovered that there was a steward that could help me by 350 feet and were scaled to fit both human and industrial to understand the correct approach to ensure true historic needs. Streets ran north and south, while avenues ran east and preservation. It was called the Barrio Latino Commission and it west. Alleys were 10 feet wide, usually running through the had existed long before I had arrived in Ybor. I also discovered middle of the block.
I also began to understand the admonitions, stated in diffrent ways,
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Arnold Martinez Art Gallery on 19th Street
Swann Cigars, circa 1940s
Based on this simple but efficient grid, an ethnic mosaic of contributors, including Spaniards, Cubans, Italians, Jews and Germans celebrated their culture through the structures they built, leaving behind architectural monuments both big and small. Cigar factories, both brick and wooden, were typically oriented on an east-west axis with numerous windows on the north and south elevations to allow natural light into the large workrooms. Around them were built rows of housing. These were small pine cottages influenced by Cuban and Key West casitas. Like the people who built and lived in them, they were sturdy and humble. Their pitched roofs were made of wood shakes or tin sheeting. Typically, the front and back doors were aligned, like the barrel of a gun. These were referred to as "shotgun" houses, or canones. Somewhat larger homes were built in the 1920s and 1930s but these were rarely grand. The larger bungalows were often only 1000 square feet, much the same size as retail storefront "bays" on the town's main streets. Small stores anchored the corner of a city block. These bodegas were usually one or two stories in height, with sundries and groceries on the first floor and residential units on the second. Height, even in cigar factories, never went beyond four or five stories. The mutual aid society and social club buildings served as hubs, meeting the medical and social needs of the community. These were the grandest buildings of all, with influences often borrowed from classical or revival architectural styles. The commercial center of town became 7th Avenue, or La Septima, with its largerscale "decorated box" buildings, elaborate brickwork, parapet walls and attached balconies. The avenue functioned as a grand promenade, allowing easy access and easy visibility, which in turn helped social and commercial egress. The promenade concept coupled with a simple street grid allowed for greater community "coalescence." 46
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These 1890s -era houses were restored by Tampa Preservation, Inc. in 1985 and are maintained by the Ybor City State Museum.
Casita located on 5th Avenue
Restored bungalows south of 7th Avenue.
Centro Asturiano, one of five mutual Aid societies in Ybor City was founded in 1902. This neo-classical clubhouse, located on the corner of Palm and Nebraska Avenues, was constructed in 1917. 48
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Most of Ybor City's commercial and residential development occurred between 1886 and 1940. This is what the Barrio Latino Commission now considers the “period of significance.” This early development established not only structures, but also rhythms and relationships. All of these elements constitute what we now refer to as "character defining features,” including height, size, building materials, positional relationships, alleys and the street grid. This fabric reveals the legacy of a people and constitutes the deepest reason people continue to be attracted to Ybor City. Simply put, the past is always present. Unfortunately, by the 1950s, Ybor City's future was in peril, the reasons for its decline numerous. Foremost was its chief source of revenue, handmade cigars. The restaurants, clothing stores, theatres and other neighborhood businesses were fed from this single wellspring. With the advent of cigarettes, machine made cigars, and The Great Depression, the handmade cigar industry collapsed. Meanwhile, young men returning from WWII headed for the suburbs. Only the most loyal returned to their little Latin hometown. It was now a postwar world, embracing rapid change. A city built by immigrants was now weakened by suburban exodus. It is important to note, however, that although Ybor City was not flourishing, it was far from dead. Many loyal residents remained, while businesses like the Max Argintar Men's Clothing Store, Naviera Coffee or the Eagle Bicycle Shop soldiered on. Handmade cigars were still available, produced in a few remaining factories and in smaller amounts by small "buckeye" shops. There was a postwar élan vital that pulsed through the community, but it was not sustainable. Physical Ybor City was deteriorating. During this period a new leadership stepped forward. Different than the cigar factory owners and club leaders of the past, these were business or property owners and individuals tied by family history. Sometimes they had no self-interest in the area but were simply motivated by their love and affection for Ybor City. These new stakeholders would utilize not only business acumen, but also political savvy to revitalize the old neighborhood. Dr. Henry J. Fernandez typified this new leadership. In 1957, as the President of the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce, he spearheaded a community proposal to build the Plaza Latino or Latin Plaza. The proposed 13-block mega structure would contain offices, a history museum, a cultural center and much more. It was to be financed by a 1.2 million dollar bond. It gained the support of Mayor Nick Nuccio as well as the County Commission. Initially, it appeared that it would be built, but the funding was needed elsewhere and plans were halted. Dr. Fernandez then proposed a smaller version of the Latin Plaza to be built in stages, one block at a
time. He envisioned a volunteer group who would confer and decide upon the style and architectural elements of the buildings. Similar projects were already underway in New Orleans under the guidance of the famed Vieux Carre Commission, a regulatory agency defined and empowered by Louisiana law. In December of 1958, a small delegation headed by Dr. Fernandez, including Gus Ayala and Sam P. Ferlita, and later joined by Dr. Anthony Martino, visited New Orleans. They met with city officials and Vieux Carre Commission members, returning to Tampa with a hopeful plan to create a review board largely modeled after the Vieux Carre Commission and have it adopted into state and local law. Democratic State Representative Sam Gibbons sponsored supportive legislation, which passed and, on August 4, 1959, Tampa City Council passed the local ordinance officially creating the Barrio Latino Commission. Dr. Fernandez had sold the BLC concept to both politicians and the public by illustrating a welded relationship between the Vieux Carre Commission and the success of the French Quarter as a tourist attraction, which was then generating 90 million dollars annually. He shrewdly understood the financial benefits of architectural regulation and its relationship to future development.
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Send in the bulldozers: A path is cleared for the interstate in 1962.
However, the planned road to redevelopment in Ybor City was about to take a major detour. In the 1950s, the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development began several initiatives intended to improve cities through a series of sweeping social programs. Most notable among them was Urban Renewal. By 1958, Tallahassee had passed laws enabling Federal Urban Renewal programs in the State of Florida. In December 1957, the City of Tampa created its own local Urban Renewal Agency, which worked in conjunction with the federal government. The plan was to raze "blighted" slums, replacing them with modern urban neighborhoods. Making periodic reports to City Council, the independent agency moved freely to acquire and demolish structures in the Ybor City project area. The construction of Interstate Highway I-4 in 1962 was also responsible for the demolition of many historic Ybor City structures and a heartbreaking, emotional assault on a community now dissected. These two events, the building of I-4 and the implementation of Urban Renewal, would mark the beginning of an Ybor City besieged by bulldozers. Nearly 700 structures were demolished. Projected in human terms, it could be described as a massacre. Eventually, funding for both the Latin Plaza and Urban Renewal's rebuilding stage evaporated. Ybor City's historic fabric would be forever altered. In the decades that followed, the Barrio Latino Commission evolved. Nationally, Historic Preservation regulations were strengthened. Much of this evolution was in response to the tragic sweep of Urban Renewal. On August 28, 1974, the federal government designated Ybor 50
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City as a National Register District, setting the stage for future, more specific designations. By 1975, the City of Tampa designated Ybor City as a Local Historic District. In 1988, El Centro Espa単ol, a magnificent social club building on 7th Avenue, was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, the highest status given to historic structures or sites in America. By 1990, the federal government designated Ybor City as a National Landmark Historic District. Today the BLC, with guidance from the Historic Preservation Commission under the City of Tampa's Department of Business and Housing Development, functions as a tool to aid the Ybor City community. Property owners seeking to rehabilitate, restore or even demolish a contributing historic structure, as well as those who seek to construct new structures, are required to make application to the BLC. Applicants are assisted through the process, benefiting from an initial design review, before attending a public hearing. Commissioners make a determination, by vote, to approve or disapprove an application, based on a finding of fact, and based on the design guidelines, which are defined and codified in city ordinance. There is very little room for bias, personal taste or even personal values on the part of commissioners. If the application is approved, a Certificate of Appropriateness, which is tied to the city's permitting process, is issued. Predictably, in the case of denials, some controversy exists. Most notably, some property owners feel that their property rights are being undermined or that their ability to redevelop properties is restricted. However, purchasing a property within a National Landmark Historic
Once demolition was complete, promised redevelopment never materialized.
District comes with added prestige and value and, therefore, with added protections and responsibilities. Owners rarely complain about benefiting from above-market real estate values. Good development occurs in the presence of thoughtful regulations, not in the absence of them. Further, imagine Ybor City without protections. What would be left historically intact? I believe the answer is, “not much.� The BLC acts as a caretaker for Ybor City, a role that no private sector entity could fulfill. Whether it was the well-intentioned attempt to create a Latin Plaza, the redemptive promise of Urban Renewal, or recent efforts to turn Ybor City into an “entertainment zone," many individuals have tried to resurrect Ybor City by turning this unique village into something it is not. But, people who visit and live here will do so because of what Ybor City is, not because of something it has been turned into. Ybor City and its remaining physical fabric is a resource for the entire community, much like a waterway or clean air. We are obligated to protect it, just as we protect the Hillsborough River or Tampa Bay. No one individual or entity should be allowed to diminish or damage this resource for his or her personal gain. The challenge of our community and the Barrio Latino Commission is to embrace new development with sensitivity and intelligence, supporting good planning while taking every measure possible, under state and federal laws, to protect this precious resource, our National Landmark Historic District.
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H
istoric Preservation wasn't always the most popular phrase in Tampa. A little over a decade ago, numerous historic buildings in Ybor City were rotting away, crumbling to the ground as a result of owner neglect and abandonment. It's cheaper to construct a new building than to restore an historic one, so why would anyone want to delve into historic preservation? Beginning in the early 1980s, a group of preservationminded individuals arrived in Ybor City, dedicated to restoring the Historic District to its former architectural grandeur. One such individual was attorney Dale Swope. His foray into historic preservation began in 1999 when, along with contractor Joe Kokolakis, he purchased the old Florida Brewery building. Located on the corner of 13th Street and Fifth Avenue, it was constructed in 1896 and was Florida's first brewery. The building had been abandoned for 40 years and had become an architectural eyesore. The Florida sun had bleached and faded the bricks. Plants and vines were growing into the building's cracks, windows were boarded up with rotted wood, and the brewery's tower had long ago been destroyed by lightning. But, two years and almost $6 million later, the brewery became one of Ybor City's crown jewels as well as home to Swope's law firm, Swope Rodante. In 2004, Swope and Kokolakis restored another historic building, The Bunker, located at 1907 N. 19th Street. Built in 1926, The Bunker was originally known as Two Friends CafĂŠ, a popular hangout for the Cuban cigar workers in Ybor City. When Swope purchased it, it was in even worse shape than the brewery. Today, it houses Tre Amici @ The Bunker, a coffeehouse run by Swope and his law partner, Angela Rodante. Over the past few years Swope has also restored numerous bungalow homes throughout Ybor City. Cigar City Magazine recently sat down with Dale Swope to find out why he enjoys taking on such monumental restoration projects.
and not many people saw them as having any value at all and Tampa was in danger of losing important symbols of its history. So [Joe Kokolakis] and I felt we needed to move in and do something to help stop that and began looking for buildings to restore together. CCM: Why did you choose the Florida Brewing Company building? DS: I was looking for a building in Ybor City for two years and [Joe Kokolakis and I] had looked everywhere. We looked at probably six other buildings and drove right past the Florida Brewing Company building without ever considering it because it was just so damned ugly. You just couldn't see anything good that could happen there. I had no idea of the history of the building and no idea that it had the potential to be a pretty building. Then one day Joe sent me an email with a history of the building and told me how beautiful it used to be and we realized it had the potential to be something special. It was in terrible condition. It looked like a dark, dank failing structure. But there are moments in your life when the bigger the challenge the bigger the attraction and that one certainly fit the bill. CCM: After all the work you put into restoring the brewery, why did you decide to restore another building and take on The Bunker project? DS: This was different. [My law firm partner Angela Rodante's] mom [Cookie Rodante] got me on the Ybor Museum's Board of Directors, which I was happy to be on. It seemed like their energy was being consumed by the problem of the Bunker. This building had been plopped into a spot between the four beautifully renovated casitas that FDOT (Florida Department of Transportation) renovated for the Ybor City State Museum Society. The Bunker wasn't even a building at all. There wasn't a floor. There was no ceiling. There were actually just two walls because the front wooden wall was rotted and the back brick wall was crumbling. It became clear that this building was a hold up for the museum and they needed someone who would renovate it and move in. So I said to myself if I do this, we can all hush and never talk about the damn Bunker building again and we can all then worry about something more important than property management. It took a solid two years and I'd be embarrassed to say how much we spent here. CCM: Do you have any advice for people who want to get into historic preservation?
CCM: How did you get into historic preservation? DS: There is no limit to the number of new buildings that can be built, but there is only so much history in Tampa. Today, we look at historic buildings and see the value in them, but not too long ago vacant historic buildings were a dime a dozen 54
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DS: You need to know that mistakes will be made and that the process will be slower than you could ever imagine. The other thing I would say is do not cut a single corner. Everything you do less than 100 percent you will regret and it will bother the heck out of you later on. And be patient. As you get older you understand it's not as easy to be old as it was to be young. The same can be said for buildings. When they are old they need patience.
My grandfather was an intrepid and innovative person. Being of Spanish ancestry, he was very knowledgeable about Spanish cuisine, and he simplified such classics as cocido madrileño, a boiled Spanish equivalent of French potau-feu. Cocido was traditionally served in two steps, first the broth, then the main course of meats, garbanzos, and potatoes. He came up with the idea that all should be served together. That’s what became Spanish bean soup. It’s from Tampa. You cannot order Spanish bean soup in Spain. They don’t know what it is. But here it became a mainstay of all Spanish-Cuban restaurants, first in Florida and eventually throughout the United States. Excerpt from The Columbia Restaurant Spanish Cookbook by Adela Hernandez Gonzmart
INGREDIENTS 1/2 lb. garbanzo beans, dried (chickpeas)
1/4 lb. salt pork, cut in thin strips
2 potatoes, peeled and cut in quarters
1 ham bone
1 tablespoon salt
Pinch of Saffron
1 beef bone
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 quarts of water
1 chorizo (Spanish sausage), sliced in thin rounds
COOKING Wash garbanzos. Soak overnight with 1 tablespoon salt in enough water to cover beans. Drain the salt water from the beans. Place beans in 4-quart soup kettle; add 2 quarts of water and ham and beef bones. Cook for 45 minutes over low heat, skimming foam from the top. Fry salt pork slowly in a skillet. Add chopped onion and sauté lightly. Add to beans along with potatoes, paprika, and saffron. Add salt to taste. When potatoes are tender, remove from heat and add chorizo. Serve hot in deep soup bowls. Serves 4 56
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MAMA KNOWS
GOT A QUESTION FOR MAMA? EMAIL HER AT: INFO@CIGARCITYMAGAZINE.COM
Dear Mama I left work because I was feeling sick and my co-worker suggested I take two aspirin and a “cocimiento” assuring me that this would cure whatever was ailing me. Unfortunately, my pharmacist wasn't familiar with this medication so I couldn't purchase it. I want to be prepared for next time, so can you recommend where I can get it? – Sickly Sue Dear Sickly A “cocimiento” is not going to be found in a pharmacy because it would never pass FDA approval. It's a concoction of secret ingredients that will cure anything from “un aire” to un empache.” – Mama Dear Mama My abuela tells me all the time that I look like a “gancho.” She's always smiling when she says it. Since I never learned to speak Spanish I assume it's complimentary. – Mo Dear Mo It's complimentary if you're dancing the tango. – Mama
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Dear Mama My grandparents are immigrants who speak English with a heavy accent so you really have to think about what they are saying. The family has learned to understand them, but to a newcomer it makes no sense. For example one day I arrived for a visit with my girlfriend and my grandfather asked me to take him to the “homo d pot to buy a new yammer.” My grandmother told him to leave me alone and to go “comb his air and put his clothes in the hamster.” I asked her if they had eaten and she said that they had “yokie and cankypakes.” She invited us to sit down and offered “pena burr and crack with cindarella”, and whispered that she was “going to tell me a cigarette.” She said that my cousin “Medicine had too much to drink last night and was over hanged.” When we left she said to “be carfo because it was slipper out.” When we left my girlfriend asked where they learned to speak English and made fun of them. I tried to explain, but gave up. How should I handle this? – Broken English Dear Broken Get rid of the girlfriend, keep the grandparents! – Mama Dear Mama I don't really have a question; it's more of an observance. Now that the holidays are over, I'm amazed at the drop in decibel levels in my home. I'm not complaining, but the competition to be heard drives the voices of everyone higher and the TV and music louder. – Enjoying the quiet Dear Quiet Next year you should try sticking a platano in each ear. – Mama