Empty parking lot at Montgomery Ward, 1701 North Dale Mabry Highway : Tampa, Fla.

Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

About this photograph

Photograph Order Number

PA 13153

Negative Number

77391-1A

Date

March 27, 1960

Creator

Burgert Brothers

Publisher

Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library

Date of Photographic Print

1933 printing

Source (original item)

1 photograph : b&w ; 21 x 26 cm. +1 negative (21 x 26 cm.)

Format

JPEG2000

General Notes

Neg. no. 77391-1A; taken March 27, 1960.; marked as "progress photos 65 thru 72" in the ledger. This is number 65. The Austen Company commissioned the photo.

Subjects

Tampa in the 1960s

By the early 60s, Tampa was caught between its cigar-city past and whatever came next. Interstate 4 cut straight through Ybor City in 1963, splitting the old neighborhood in two. Downtown boosters pushed urban renewal to keep Tampa a business town — under Mayor Julian Lane (1959–63) the city kicked off the Maryland Avenue project, paved 200-plus miles of streets, upgraded the sewers, and annexed Port Tampa in 1961. The state created the expressway authority in 1963 to plan a toll road system. And one quiet milestone: Al and Jean Burgert's studio, photographing Tampa since 1918, closed its doors in 1963. These early-1960s photographs are among the last of the Burgert era — a final look at the cigar city before interstates and urban renewal redrew it.

Sources: Burgert Brothers Collection History and Preservation (Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library); Julian Barnes Lane - 48th Mayor (City of Tampa); THEA: 61 Years of Serving Tampa Bay (Tampa Hillsborough Expressway Authority); From Annexation to Urban Renewal: Urban Development in Tampa during the 1950s and 1960s (Tampa Bay History via USF Digital Commons)