 Sulphur
Springs lies about 6 miles north of downtown Tampa. Its southern
boundary is the Hillsborough River, the northern boundary is
Busch Boulevard. Florida Avenue and the CSX railroad line forms
boundaries on the west and east. Sulphur Springs, like most of
Florida, has a rich and ancient natural history. The man made
history of the area starts with Native Americans, who legend
has it, drank from the Springs and benefited from the medicinal
benefits of the natural mineral water.
The first mention of Sulphur Springs in
the history of Tampa dates back to 1889 when the Tampa city
commissioners contracted for the building of a bridge to cross the
Hillsborough River at the county road now know as Van Dyke Place.
Completed in 1891, the bridge was used until 1961.
In the late 1890s John Mills purchased what
would later become Sulphur Springs from J.H. Krause, a real estate
developer, and developed a small park around the natural bubbling spring.
Mills developed his park into a small resort community and it opened in 1900
boasting bathhouses, a fishpond, and a pool. Shortly after opening for
business, steam ships traveled along the Hillsborough River filled with
urbanites seeking recreation at the springs.
In 1906 real estate promoter
Josiah Richardson purchased 100 acres from Mills, between
Florida Ave. and Nebraska Ave. from the Hillsborough River to
Waters Avenue. The town was a rustic swimming pool with a few
wooden bathhouses when Richardson bought it and he transformed
it into a winter mecca and spa for northerners.
By 1908 the popularity of the
once small resort community increased so drastically that a
trolley line was built to Sulphur Springs by the Tampa and
Sulphur Springs Traction Company. Visitors flocked to the spring
for its healing waters; a 1911 Tampa tourist brochure touted
Sulphur Springs as possessing “water which is especially
beneficial in cases of chronic constipation, intestinal
auto-intoxication and most kidney diseases where there is need
of a cathartic and diuretic in combinations” (Tampa Board of
Trade, 1911).
In 1920,
Josiah Richardson
opened an amusement park called Sulphur Springs. The park
consisted of a pool, bathhouse, an alligator farm, a dance
pavilion, and a shed for the streetcar that was frequented by
tourists and Tampans alike. He laid walks, erected elaborate
bathhouses, built a restaurant, dock, and toboggan slide.
Richardson also built tourist cottages which were later
converted to year-round homes as tourists made the community
their permanent residence. A vibrant commercial area grew up
around the “Springs” and development flourished along Nebraska
Avenue. In 1923 Tampa’s city limits were extended to include
Sulphur Springs.
 In
1925 Richardson began construction of the Arcade, a source of
pride and convenience for the community for fifty years.
Richardson saw the springs as a mecca for vacationers of modest
means, but refused to sacrifice quality
in the development of its
attractions. He contracted an artist from Europe to decorate the
interior of the Arcade, and for the sidewalk he pioneered
terrazzo, marble chips laid over concrete that were buffed to a
luminous sheen. [The Arcade in 1929]
(Continued in column at right) |
|
|
A view from the southwest, taken from the south end
of the bridge (Florida Ave.) that goes over the Hillsborough River. |
|
When it was completed in 1927 the
Arcade boasted a hotel, apartments, post office, barbershop,
sheriff’s office, jail, and bank. It was recognized in
Ripley’s Believe it or Not as an entire city under one roof
and the first mini-mall in the United States. Later, it
also housed the Springs Cafe, Whitehead’s Drug Store, Piggly
Wiggly store, bakery, pool hall.
Completion of the Arcade
created the need for water to service it, so Richardson
mortgaged all of his assets, including the 100 acres of Sulphur
Springs and the Arcade, to build a $180,000 water tower overseen
by architect Grover Poole. The Sulphur Springs Water Tower is
located on 13 acres of grassland on the banks of the
Hillsborough River. The expansion of the community into a
bustling tourist destination and real estate market would not
have been possible without the creation of the water tower to
bring the necessary water to its businesses, patrons, and
residents.
The 225-foot-tall Gothic
Revival tower is one of only two such structures remaining in
Florida. Poole designed it to look like a medieval tower,
with slit windows and battlements crowning the holding tank.
The tower combines utilitarian function and
architectural vision with its elaborate detailing, crenellated
parapet walls, lancet windows, and scrolled footings. Constructed
of poured-in-place concrete, the entire structure is on solid rock over a
artesian spring. Plans included an elevator to carry people up the cylinder to the observation
balcony, which provided a panoramic view of this bucolic river
setting. Richardson's original hope of club rooms occupying the floors
between the spring-feed base and the storage tank never materialized. |
|
The Florida Avenue bridge was completed
in January, 1927. Prior to this the only means of traffic across the
river, going north and south, was over the very narrow bridge on
Nebraska Avenue, which was so narrow that traffic going north had to
stop to allow south-bound traffic to pass, and vice versa. The
"hump" on Florida Avenue as you approach the river from the south, is
actually the James N. Holmes bridge, started in 1926.
