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Archives presentation traces Tampa's 1925 boom: Booker T. Washington School, West Tampa annexation, Davis Islands development
Summary
At an Archives Awareness Week talk, Rodney Kite Powell detailed Tampa's 1925 growth, highlighted the centennial of Booker T. Washington School, recounted West Tampa's annexation and described Davis Islands' construction and hospital bond issuance.
Rodney Kite Powell, director of the map library at the Tampa Bay History Center, used an Archives Awareness Week presentation to outline major developments in Tampa in 1925, including the centennial of Booker T. Washington School, the annexation of West Tampa and construction on Davis Islands.
Powell said Booker T. Washington School, created as part of local black education infrastructure, remains a significant institutional legacy and that the school’s faculty and alumni — including principal Howard W. Blake and teacher Hilda Turner — played roles in local civil-rights and equal-pay efforts. “Booker T. Washington... was a world renowned educator, and advocate for, for blacks in the U.S. and really advocate for education,” Powell said.
Powell traced other 1925 events that shaped Tampa’s boundaries and built environment. He said the city annexed the city of West Tampa in January 1925, bringing the area west of the Hillsborough River into Tampa’s jurisdiction. Powell noted West Tampa had been a substantial, independent city — founded around the cigar industry — with its own mayor, police and fire services before annexation.
The presentation described Davis Islands as an active reclamation and development project in the mid-1920s. Powell said bonds were released in 1925 to fund what was then Tampa Municipal Hospital (now Tampa General Hospital) on Davis Islands; the hospital opened in 1927. He also noted developer D.P. Davis later went bankrupt and the Stone & Webster company completed the island’s infrastructure by about 1929. Powell estimated roughly 90 of the island’s original 130–140 1920s buildings survive on the north end of the island.
Powell placed these developments in the context of the 1920s Florida land boom, which he said peaked around 1925 and later collapsed in the late 1920s. He discussed Temple Terrace’s centennial and noted Plant City’s earlier incorporation in 1886.
The presentation included historical images and encouraged attendees to join related Archives Awareness Week programs, including a separate program on Booker T. Washington School at Tampa’s Black History Museum at Saint James Church.
