The history of Tampa and it's original residents sounds very similar to that of most other "OLD" cities.  That is the early settlers congregated near a fresh water source and began building their homes and places of business.  That place in Tampa was and is now called "YBOR CITY."  Ybor is a Spanish word (I don't know what it's English translation is) but I do know that in Spanish a word that leads off with a "Y" is pronounced as if it leads off with an "E",   hence "YBOR CITY" is spoken like "E-BOR CITY."  A common old Spanish name down here that follows the same rules is "Ycelso" pronounced E-cell-so.  The man who washed the windows at the building where I worked is named "Ycelso Nunes."  He and I had a long conversation about this which is the extent of my knowledge of the Spanish language.

Some day I will dedicate a whole page to Ybor City, but my point here is that as Ybor grew, the more affluent settlers began to move and build more expensive homes on the outskirts of the city.  That first area became known as "Tampa Heights."

I also hope to do a page on "Hyde Park" and south Tampa which is where most to the "Old Money" and some of the new money resides today.

Tampa Heights is located Immediately to the West of Ybor City.   It is also located to the immediate North of the modern day downtown Tampa.

Most of the expensive homes were build in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  

Although there are several different architectural designs in the area, the two predominate designs were Victorian Queen Ann style and one that is called Bungalow style. Sometimes the two styles were combined.

As time went on, and people became more mobile, the affluent began to migrate to the Suburbs.

As this occurred these large older home were turned into apartments of boarding houses.  As time went on poverty, crime and dilapidated, run-down buildings  took over the entire neighborhood.

By the mid 90's the area got so bad that the newly elected Mayor, Dick Greco, formulated a plan to clean it up and to begin a complete restoration of the neighborhood.  Around 1997 he formulated a plan known as "The Mayors Heights Project" to stop the crime, mostly prostitution and drugs, and to buy up and tear down all condemned buildings.  The lots were then sold with the restriction that you must build an owner occupied one or two family home within one year. Low interest loans were also made available to the remaining residents to rebuild and remodel the remaining structures.  In all about 84 million dollars of city money has been dumped in the neighborhood.  The place has become a great neighborhood again and some beautiful homes have been restored or replaced.

The eastern section of Tampa Heights is the area that has been classified as the "Historic District."  This is where most of the revitalization has taken place to date.  The pictures here are of some of the beautiful homes in the historic district.

Of all the homes here this first house is my favorite. It is Victorian style and is typical of the style in the neighborhood at the turn of the century.  Steep Metal roofs were the norm and if you build in the historic district you must do one.  They cost about 4 times what an asphalt shingle roof does but they have a life expectancy of about 100 years if installed properly.  This is new construction but fits the neighborhood perfectly.

  This next picture is a side view of the same house. As is typical in the area the garage is in the rear.  When a back alley is available, entrance to the garage is from the alley as is the case here. The garage is the attached section just visible to the left.

This next home is one of Helen's favorites.  It is Victorian style home, and is a restored building that was once a single family turned to a two family and finally back to a single family. It has five porches on it. Three on the first floor, front, side and rear,  and two on the second, front and rear.

 The garage is in the rear as you can see in the next picture. The garage entrance is from the back alley.  The garage also has a Studio/Apartment above which is very common in most old neighborhoods.  This concept is also being brought back in some of the new developments in all of Florida.

This next home is new construction.  It is predominately of two story Bungalow design but has a little modern touch to it.  It is Owned by the President of the Tampa Heights Neighborhood Association.  He is also an architect and designed the home himself.

This next home is a restoration.  It sits on the opposite side of the street from the previous home and is very similar in style.

The above four homes make up the corner Ross and Jefferson Streets.  It is one of the prettiest corners in the Heights area and is what sparked our interest in the area.  It was one of the first areas completed in the project.

Another one of my favorites is this next one. This house shows some of the Bungalow architecture mixed with the Victorian.  The wrap around porch and that it is built off the ground on small square brick columns which are the main Bungalow features here and the round turret and steep roofs are the Victorian.

The next house is a restoration and the two after that are new construction.