Tampa, Florida

The seat of Hillsborough County, Tampa is part of one of the largest metropolitan areas in Florida, comprised of Tampa, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, its mild climate and multiple attractions have enticed both tourists and relocating retirees. In addition, the city’s pro-business climate has allowed it to develop a balanced economy, relaxing the reliance on the tourism industry. It is now recognized as a center of finance and industry.

Landscape

Located on Florida’s west coast, the city is on the north shore of Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay is the Gulf of Mexico’s largest inlet on the peninsular region of the state. Tampa is 57 feet above sea level on a coastal plain. Further inland, orchards mix with laurel and pine forests.

Tampa has a semitropical climate, moderated by the Gulf of Mexico. Summers are humid and warm, with average highs in the 90 degree Fahrenheit range and lows in the 70s. In winter, the weather is mild, with average highs in the 60s and 70s and lows that seldom dip below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, although winter freezes can occur. The average annual temperature is approximately 73 degrees Fahrenheit.

The city’s name is believed to have been derived from the Calusa word “tanpa,” meaning “sticks of fire”—the area has long been known for the lightning accompanying its thunderstorms. Late afternoon storms are common in the days between June and September, more than any other American city. The city is one of the nation’s stormiest, annually receiving 46 inches of precipitation on average.

The city itself encompasses 175 square miles, though the metropolitan region is much larger. It aligns in a north-south orientation, with a peninsula extending into Tampa Bay. That peninsula divides the Bay into Hillsborough Bay to the east and Old Tampa Bay to the west. The city is at the mouth of Hillsborough River, its downtown area bisected by that river.

People

Early Native American tribes in the Tampa region included the Timucua, Tocobaga, and Calusa. Until about 1760, the Tocobaga lived around Tampa Bay. They were the only Native Americans in the region with an agrarian culture, planting corn, rather than hunting and gathering. The Calusa had more time to develop their civilization because they relied on the abundant sea life for food. They formed a complex and centralized system of government based on slaves, commoners, and nobility. They also had leisure time for creating art and an organized religion, and constructed a canal system.

These three groups were followed by the Seminoles, who entered the region in the 1700s. Following the Seminole Wars, the group agreed to the Treaty of Tampa in 1823, which had them move them inland to a reservation. Remaining Seminoles today live on a reservation in Tampa, as well as on reservations in five other Florida cities.

Those of Jewish descent have been an integral part of Tampa’s population from the city’s founding in 1886. That year, Herman Glogowski was elected to the first of his four terms as mayor. Eight years later, the city’s first Jewish religious school opened.

People of Cuban descent have long been among the city’s influential persons. Cuban cigar makers, who built factories and workers’ towns, helped shape Tampa’s economy. Vicente Martinez Ybor, after experiencing labor problems in his Key West cigar factory, moved production to Tampa in the 1880s. He also built Ybor City, now one of the state’s two National Historic Landmark Districts, for factory workers. Other Cuban cigar makers, their Cuban workers, and their factories followed, as well as those who worked independently. During the 1940s, there were 10,000 cigar workers in 122 factories in Ybor City.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Tampa’s estimated 2022 population was 398,173, making it the state’s third largest city after Jacksonville and Miami. Details of the census show that 44.1 percent of the people were White, with Black or African Americans making up 21.8 percent of the population. 26.7 percent of the population self-identifies as having Latino or Hispanic origins. (The US Census Bureau asks the Hispanic question separately from the race question, as Hispanics or Latinos may identify as any race.) About 18.4 percent of the population is foreign-born, and 28.2 percent of people over the age of five speak a language other than English at home.

Tampa is a popular retirement location, with 13 percent of the population aged sixty-five years old or older.

Economy

In the 1880s, phosphates, chemical compounds used in manufacturing fertilizer, were discovered nearing the Bone Valley, southeast of Tampa, resulting in a boom for the mining and shipping industries. Port Tampa Bay is the state’s largest port. In 2017, Port Tampa Bay ranked among the US Department of Transportation’s twenty-five largest US ports in terms of tonnage. In addition to phosphates, the port handles petroleum products, limestone, sulfur, ammonia, coal, granite, and scrap metal. The area is also known for its aquaculture and for its agriculture, particularly small fruit, vegetables, and ornamental plants.

Because of its network of highways and railroads, as well as its international airport, Tampa is a trade and distribution center for the region. The city began the first passenger-airline service in the world in 1914, connecting Tampa with St. Petersburg. (It lasted for only three months.) The 143-mile Tamiami Trail (US 41) linked Tampa to Miami in 1928 and Tampa is a terminus of Amtrak's southeastern railroad.

In addition to the tourism industry, Tampa also is known for high-tech industry. The city also produces electronics, fabricated metal products, machinery, processed food and beverages, appliances and components, and plastics and rubber items. In the 1980s, a building boom resulted in both a major airport renovation and construction of a cruise ship terminal.

Since the days of the Spanish-American War, in 1898, Tampa has been a military town. MacDill Air Force Base is the headquarters for both the US Special Operations Command and US Central Command. Military operations from central Asia to northeastern Africa are directed from this base, which is situated at the southern end of the city on a peninsula. During World War II, the city’s shipyards drew welders from around the nation to construct cargo ships.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Tampa's largest employment sectors in 2023 included professional and business services; trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; leisure and hospitality; and government. Its unemployment rate in December 2023 was 3.1 percent.

Landmarks

Given that so much of the city’s economy relies on tourist dollars, it is not surprising that many of the landmarks in the area have been created to lure guests.

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay has an African theme and is known for its hippos. Various other animals, such as Clydesdale horses and a variety of birds, are also featured. In addition to rides and attractions, this zoo and amusement park offers adventure camps for all ages and up-close tours with various African animals.

The Florida Aquarium houses more than 20,000 marine animals and plants. It also is a botanical garden and aviary. Touch-tanks offer opportunities to interact with some of the animals. It has been ranked among the nation’s top five “kid-friendly” aquariums for families to visit and among the top ten aquariums in the nation. Special activities include the chance to swim in a coral reef, and exhibits feature various water habitats: the ocean, a coral reef, bays and beaches, and wetlands. Three times daily, the Penguin Parade delights visitors.

The city’s Museum of Science and Industry features opportunities to pedal a special bike on a high-wire three floors above the lobby or be swept away by a Gulf Coast hurricane. The Saunders Planetarium there offers a look at the galaxy, and a Butterfly Garden allows visitors to enjoy the beauty of winged creatures.

The Tampa Museum of Art opened a new 66,000-square-foot building featuring classrooms, an outdoor exhibit area for sculpture, and five major galleries late in 2010. The museum offers ongoing lifelong learning classes, a Saturday morning drop-in program, and a spring art camp. In addition, the museum hosts monthly events such as an art lover’s afternoon tea and Art After Dark with live music and food.

The city also boasts two major league sports teams: the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lightning. The Tampa Bay Rays, the region’s professional baseball team, plays in St. Petersburg. The Lightning won the Staney Cup Championship in 2020 and 2021, while the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl after the 2020 season.

History

The Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León came to Tampa in 1513. In 1528, Pánfilo de Narváez arrived in the region looking for gold, followed by Hernando de Soto on the same mission eleven years later. The Spanish conquistadors, however, were concentrating on developing eastern Florida and largely ignored the western coast.

Even so, by about 1700, most of the original Native American tribes had succumbed to diseases from Europe against which they had no immunity. The Seminoles came to the area from other parts of the south.

British colonists from the north invaded the area and the British held the region briefly during the late 1700s. Following the American Revolution, Tampa again became a Spanish colony. For five million dollars, Spain sold the territory to the United States in 1821 in the Adams-Onís Treaty.

In 1824, the US Army established Fort Brooke, designed to guard strategically important Tampa Bay. Conflicts between the white settlers and soldiers and the Seminoles led to repeated wars. Runaway black slaves and Native Americans were forced into Tampa from further north in the area, where white settlers wanted to grow cotton.

After the Second Seminole War, a town developed and flourished, despite outbreaks of yellow fever and a hurricane that destroyed the town in 1848. After rebuilding, Tampa incorporated in 1855. Most Seminoles were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma after the Seminole Wars ended in 1858.

Although Florida was the third southern state to secede from the Union in 1861, federal forces seized many coastal cities, including Tampa. During the remainder of the Civil War, federal troops occupied Tampa and blockaded it to prevent supplies from reaching the rebel army.

In 1884, Henry Plant extended his South Florida Railroad from Jacksonville to Tampa. He also built elaborate hotels, such as the Tampa Bay Hotel, to lure visitors to the city. The hotel is now the main building of the University of Tampa, which was founded in 1931.

Given the large number of Cubans who had come to Tampa to work in the cigar factories of the late 1800s, the city became embroiled in Cuban politics. Cuba had declared independence from Spain in 1868, although the Ten Years’ War to secure that freedom was unsuccessful. After the war, José Martí, a Cuban rebel, came to the United States to raise funds and fervor. He stopped in Tampa before returning to Cuba, where he helped to mobilize the local Cuban community and Americans for a war of liberation and imperial ambition.

US troops began amassing in Tampa in 1898 waiting to be shipped out, but instead found themselves passing out in the heat. Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were among the 23,000 troops who arrived. Clara Barton, the Red Cross’s founder, also came to set up a hospital. A total of 4,784 men died in camp from diseases such as typhoid fever, before the Navy ships left the harbor for a successful campaign and annexing of Cuba.

When farmers in the northern part of the state experienced cooler temperatures at the beginning of the twentieth century, the citrus industry moved farther south, with Tampa as its new center. Like many Florida cities, Tampa experienced a land boom in the early 1920s. The city’s chosen name, Sunshine City, was belied in December 1925, however, with rain and plummeting temperatures that gave northern bankers gathered for a convention the chills. The event was an omen of the early Depression that gripped Florida three years before it affected the rest of the country.

As had been true during World War I, Tampa mobilized to produce ships for the war effort in the 1940s during World War II. Like many cities during the 1950s and '60s, though, Tampa’s inner city deteriorated as people moved to the outlying suburbs.

The early 1970s and 1980s brought coordinated efforts to revitalize the downtown area. Constructing convention centers, condominiums, stadiums, and new office complexes aided the local economy. During the 1990s, businesses continued to expand. A 2009 study by the Pew Research Center ranked Tampa as the fifth most popular city in the United States, based on where people surveyed said they would like to live. In 2015, Money magazine ranked Tampa as the best city in the southeastern United States, citing its many cultural and environmental attractions.

When Hurricane Irma hit Florida in September 2017, Tampa was expected to receive the brunt of the storm but was ultimately spared most of the worst effects. Its bay did, however, experience historic draining due to the powerful low pressure system before the hurricane made landfall.

Trivia

• The Seminoles signed the Treaty of Tampa in 1823 under pressure from the first governor of the Florida Territory, Sharp Knife. Better known as Andrew Jackson, he would later be elected president and became known for forcing the Cherokee to leave their ancestral homes in the southeast.
• Each year since 1904, the city hosts the Gasparilla Pirate Festival, commemorating the noted pirate of Tampa Bay, José Gasparilla. Held in February, it is the city’s version of Mardi Gras.
• In 1919, Babe Ruth hit his longest exhibition home run at Plant Field in Tampa—587 feet.

Bibliography

Brown, Canter, Jr. Tampa before the Civil War. U of Tampa P, 1999.

Dunn, Hampton. Tampa: A Pictorial History. Donning, 1985.

Ingalls, Robert P., and Louis A. Pérez. Tampa Cigar Workers: A Pictorial History. UP of Florida, 2003.

Lizotte, George. Pioneer Days on Tampa Bay’s Gulf Beaches. Edited by R. Wayne Ayres, U of Tampa P, 2017.

"Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL." US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 16 Feb. 2024, www.bls.gov/eag/eag.fl‗tampa‗msa.htm. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

"Tampa City, Florida." United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/tampacityflorida/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Tash, Paul. 125 Years: Tampa Bay through the Times. Pediment Publishing, 2008.