Unknown building : location unknown
Photograph Order Number PA 18709
Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System
About this photograph
- Photograph Order Number
- PA 18709
- Negative Number
- A108
- 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. It is uncertain if this is an authentic Burgert Brothers photo. Date from back of print.
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)