Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce building : Tampa, Fla.
Photograph Order Number PA 16381
Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System
About this photograph
- Photograph Order Number
- PA 16381
- Negative Number
- A000105
- Date
- Creator
- Burgert Brothers
- Publisher
- Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library
- Source (original item)
- 1 photograph : b&w ;21 x 26 cm.
- Format
- JPEG2000
- General Notes
- Title text in brackets not supplied in ledger.
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)