Distincive Apalachicola

The National Trust of Historic Places just released a list of a Dozen Distinctive Destinations, which includes Florida's Apalachicola. The City of Apalachicola is known for its oysters, but there is more to the story than just shellfish.

To learn more, I recommend:

Florida's Forgotten Coast: Life on the Apalachicola Bay, an Oral History project from the Southern Foodways Alliance

Apalachicola River--An American Treasure, by Clyde Butcher (University Press of Florida, 2006)

Voices of the Apalachicola, Edited by Faith Eidse (University Press of Florida, 2007)

Ybor City Street Scenes

Rainy Day at Tampa Bay Hotel

Even in a February drizzle, the historic Tampa Bay Hotel impresses me. I find it so easy to imagine the past here, ladies and gentlemen promendading on the veranda, waiting for the showers to pass. The leaves of the banana plant show the effects of a winter freeze, although it's warmer in Tampa today than it is in Philadelphia or Long Island. But as fancy as the iced gingerbread is on this building, what lingers in my mind is what went into making the walls.

The Tampa Bay Hotel was a major construction project in the 1880s. To say it was ambitious is putting it mildly. The new was barely worn off the railroad tracks to Tampa, and just hundreds of people lived here when Henry Plant thought of building a resort hotel on the banks of the Hillsborough River. Just where did he think they would find the men and materials for such an undertaking? Well, the men came from all over the country, but the logistics of was finding construction materials in a new frontier town was more difficult.

One need was shell for the concrete, and the builders found what they required where the Alafia River met Tampa Bay in the form of prehistoric shell mounds. Eating oyster and clam and mussells creates some trash. Shell mounds and shell middens are places where shellfish remains are discarded and accummulate, at times forming small hills. Often, other trash or refuse would get mixed in with the shell, such as bones from last night's dinner, or a broken bowl. If the mounds got big enough, they were useful as high pieces of ground, either a vantage point or somewhere out of the water. Today, archaeologists study and protect shell mounds, but in the lat 19th century, people all over Florida mined these hills for shell. The shell was used for road construction, or as in the case of the Tampa Bay Hotel, for making concrete. I wonder what was mixed into those walls along with the shell....

(Photo: Shell mound at New Smyrna, Florida State Archives, PR07602)

In another instance of resourcefullness, the Tampa Bay Hotel builders salvaged old submarine cable, selling the copper, but using the fiber and metal as construction materials. While I suppose you could look for comparisons to modern considerations of green construction or sustainability, they were really just making do with what they had at hand.

Transoceanic cable came to Florida shortly after the Civil War, through the efforts of the International Ocean Telegraph Company. The installation of telegraph cable was very important for south Florida, which in the 1860s was barely explored, much less settled, by the United States. Cable lines and railroads went as far south as Cedar Key, and that was it. South Florida was quite isolated from the world, and from knowledge of world events or markets that might provide needed capital. In 1867, the IOTC put up poles and telgraph wire from Cedar Key to Gainesville, and on to Lake City. The wire raced southward from Ocala to Dade City, then to Polk County and along the Peace River. Following the Caloosahatchee River, the wire reached Punta Rassa, where it connected with submarine cable from Key West. Another submarine cable connected Key West and Cuba.

Telegraph service in Florida began in 1867, and in following years IOTC added connection from Florida and Cuba to Jamaice, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad. The Florida - Cuba cable stayed in operation into the 1940s, and in the 1950s IOTC became part of Western Union.

In a 1989 journal article, Canter Brown, Jr., considered the impact of the IOTC cable on Florida, noting that while non-Florida contractors supplied materials, the company did created much sought-after jobs in south Florida. On a less positive note, Brown pointed out that the IOTC's early impact was limited by high prices it charged to send a cable -- "$4.00 in gold for transmitting a ten-word message from Lake city to Cuba" -- which was out of reach for the average Floridian. Brown considered the cable company's most significant impact to be from the roads it built along the wire's route. "Wire Road" became a major north/south corridor for pioneers settling south Florida in the late nineteenth century.

So when I look at the Tampa Bay Hotel, I think of both the historic events that took place within its walls and the history that went into its walls.

If you'd like to visit the Tampa Bay Hotel, your best option is the Henry Plant Museum. The museum now offers handheld audio tours, and an exhibit about Gasparilla's history.

Sources:

Plant's Palace: Henry B. Plant and the Tampa Bay Hotel, by James Covington (Harmony House, 1990)

"The International Ocean Telegraph" by Canter Brown, Jr. (Florida Historical Quarterly, 1989, Volume 68, Number 2, Pages 135-159).

Preservation Grants

From the Library of Congress,

Foundation Grants for Preservation Libraries, Archives, and Museums

Downloadable -- FREE -- as an Adobe Acrobat document.

"This publication lists 1,725 grants of $5,000 or more awarded by 474 foundations, from 2003 through 2007. It covers grants to public, academic, research, school, and special libraries, and to archives and museums for activities related to conservation and preservation." Using this resource, you can find out who is giving grant money, where, and for what purpose.

I found this link in the monthly Heritage News e-newsletter from the National Park Service, which can be read online, or emailed to you.

Plant City Has Some Big Strawberries

It's strawberry season again in Plant City!



1939 photos of Strawberry Festival



City of Plant City - History



Remembering Plant City, by Gilbert Gott (Google Books)



Plant City (Images of America; Google Books)



Plant City in Vintage Postcards (Google Books)

Historic Ceramic Tile Floors

Two sources of information for preservation of historic ceramic and tile floors:

• Preserving Historic Ceramic Tile Floors (Preservation Brief 40, National Park Service)
• Preserving Historic Ceramic Tile Floors (The Old House Web)

And two photographs of interesting floors in Tampa's Italian Club building:

Recent Florida News Stories

"One Man's Art Is Another's Trailer Trash" (Tampa Tribune, January 9, 2008: "Evoking the spirit of kitschy Americana like giant balls of string or alligator wrestling, seven aluminum-plated travel trailers once destined for the junkyard have gotten unexpected mileage as a roadside curiosity along eastbound Interstate 4."

"A Florida state song makeover you can dance to" (St. Petersburg Times, January 8, 2008: "Dance strong. Dance proud.")

"New South Florida" (South Florida Sun-Sentinel: " ABOUT THE SERIES: The New South Florida: exploring how shifts in demographics, immigration, culture, our economy and mobility have changed the way we live.")

"'Colored Beach' gets recognition" (Miami Herald, January 19, 2008: "As James D. Bradley Jr. scans the milelong strip of sand once known as 'Colored Beach,' he recalls boarding a ferry at Port Everglades 50 years ago, or riding across the sand in his father's jeep, to join hundreds at the only place in Broward where they could swim in the ocean.")

"Makinson Island in Osceola County emerging as eco-tourism site" (Orlando Sentinel, January 19, 2008: "Although it's owned by the public, few have seen Makinson up close in recent years because it's accessible only by boat. In times past, however, it has been home to citrus and cattle farms, a sanitarium for alcoholics and an exotic-animal attraction.")

"War re-enactors to put on show at Okeechobee battlefield" (TCPalm.com, January 26, 2008: "The public will get its first glimpse next week of what is to become of Okeechobee Battlefield State Park.")

"Project aims to unlock Pleasant City's history" (Palm Beach Post, January 26, 2008: " 'Wait. Go back,' Carlton Cartwright said as a grainy black and white photo of three smiling members of the city's 1940 Negro League baseball team flashed on the screen. 'One of those guys is my cousin.'")

"Preservationists facing tough, ongoing struggle" (Miami Herald, January 22, 2008: "Historic preservationists gained a trifecta of victories in Miami Beach last week.")

"Chalet Suzanne Faces New Challenges" (The Ledger, January 20, 2008)

"Uncertain future awaits Sanibel lighthouse" (Fort Myers Florida Weekly, January 10, 2008: "The U.S. Coast Guard oversees the tower and Bailey, who is chairman of the Sanibel Historic Committee, said he hopes they won't decide to let that light slowly extinguish, as more up-to-date technologies take the place of this old fashioned beacon for seamen.")

Pardon Our Dust

I'm messing around with Blogger's template options, so things may be a little more jumbled than usual for a little while. Please be patient, or better yet, give me some suggestions for how to improve this blog's appearance!

A January Afternoon at Tampa's Old City Hall

Built in 1914-1915, Tampa's Old City Hall (still used for meetings) is a local historic landmark.

Birding Trip to Merritt Island

This weekend, we went on a field trip with Tampa Audubon to the Viera Wetlands and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Brevard County, on Florida's East Coast, near Cape Canaveral. The Viera Wetlands are part of Brevard County's water treatment and reclaimation system, located near the New Town of Viera and the A.Duda Sod Farm. The Duda family started planning Viera in the 1980s, and A. Duda and Sons has been operating sod farms since the 1970s. In addition to LOTS of birds, we saw a river otter, wild hogs, and a turtle at Viera Wetlands.

Sandhill cranes near the town of Viera

There was a caracara at the Viera Wetlands.

Along with an uncountable number of coots, only a tiny, tiny percentage of which are shown in this picture.

Sod farm

On the way to Merritt Island NWR, we stopped at Parrish Park, which is just on the other side of the Max Brewer Bridge from Titusville. The Max Brewer drawbridge is the longest swing bridge in the state, and one of only two existing historic deck girder swing bridges in Florida. The bridge is scheduled to be replaced by a high, fixed-span bridge.

Our group leader identified 92 different species, and I saw 60 or so. Some of my favorites are the sandhill crane, pie-billed grebe, roseate spoonbill, and peregrine falcon. My list for the trip:

pie-billed grebe

white pelican

brown pelican

American bittern

great blue heron

great egret

snowy egret

little blue heron

tricolored heron

reddish egret

cattle egret

green heron

white ibis

glossy ibis

roseate spponbill

wood stork

tree swallow

mockingbird

yellow rumped warbler

palm warbler

red-winged blackbird

common grackle

boat-tailed grackle

black vulture

american widgeon

blue-winged teal

northern shoveler

northern pintail

green-winged teal

lesser scaup

hooded merganser

ruddy duck

osprey

bald eagle

northern harrier

red-shouldered hawk

crested caracara

American kestrel

peregrine falcon

wild turkey

common moorhen

American coot

sandhill crane

killdeer

American avocet

greater yellowlegs

willet

sandpiper

marbled godwit

ruddy turnstone

short-billed dowitcher

laughing gull

Bonaparte's gull

ring-billed gull

herring gull

black-backed gull

Caspian tern

royal tern

Forster's tern

rock dove

shrike