Digitized Historic Aerial Photo Collection

TampaTerminal on the Ybor Channel looking North, Northeast towards the Tampa Gas Company storage tank (1956)

Somehow while searching for historic pictures I came across a collection of historic aerial photographs digitized by the University of South Florida that I had never seen before, The Graber Collection of Florida Aerial Photographs.  The USF website for the collection states:

"As early as 1949, Robert Graber and his company, Airflite Aerial Photographers, began photographing the growth of Florida's west coast.  By the time Graber stopped taking aerial photographs in 1990, the St. Petersburg photographer had accumulated approximately 27,000 aerial shots, many of which are presented here.

The Graber Collection of Aerial Photography consists of more than 8,000 individual photographic negatives spanning 1949-1990. The photographs are dated and indexed according to the records of the original photographer; logbooks provide additional information about many of the aerial shots. Most of the photographs, which were taken by Graber with a K-24 military surveillance camera, document land development and construction on Florida's west coast. The collection was donated by Ken and JoAnne Taylor in 1997.  There are 4,781 images online from the years 1956-1959."

While most of the photographs available online seem to be of development along the Pinellas beaches and in Pinellas county, there are some great shots of Tampa and development taking place there during 1956-1959.  Many are shots from angles I am not use to seeing or of areas that didn't get a lot of attention from the Burgert's.  Please keep in mind that most of the photos are low resolution or low quality.  Below are some highlights:

Railroad tracks through Hyde Park and Dobyville are looking Southwest centered over Platt and Dakota (1957)

Tampania Tweets

I am starting a twitter feed for Tampania.  While I hope it will prove to be a good platform for short bursts of creativity and thinking, ruminations on the Tampa landscape, and news.  I am sure there will also be a lot of relevant re-tweets.  So follow me if you tweet and maybe I'll do the same to you.

Long distance switch operators at Peninsular Telephone, Tampa (1948) Burgert Bros.

Tunnel Under the Bridge Downtown NOW OPEN

Went for a bike ride through downtown recently and was surprised as I rode over the Platt Street bridge to see a sign that said "Pedestrian Tunnel Open"!  You may recall my recent post where I noted that I hadn't even known of this tunnel until my friend posted some pictures on his blog.

Ghosts of the garrison

It was a lovely day for a bike ride, so I headed for downtown.  It was still a little too chilly in the shadows of the downtown skyscrapers so I pedaled over towards the parking wasteland of South downtown.  I'm always fascinated when I travel through this area at how the bodies of the buildings that once dotted this area are still visible.  Most the buildings were knocked down only to their foundations.

Sometimes a foot or two of wall was left to serve as a type of barrier between the street and lot.

Railroad Yards

One of my favorite images in the Burgert Brothers Collection is this cirkut picture taken of Atlantic Coast Line railroad shop employees grouped in front of and on a locomotive at the Uceta Rail Yards taken in 1929:

I don't know what is the most interesting part of this photo; the process, the fact that the photographers got all or the majority of these people to stand still, the diversity of the workers, or the building looming to the right?  These rail yards are still at the heart of CSXs operations in Tampa and it appears that old shop is still standing.  Take a ride down Adamo between Tampa and Brandon and on the east side of 50th street you drive past a lot filled with trees, punctuated by a signed entranced to CSX.  You would never know that this building and a whole rail yard lie beyond.  However if you drive the elevated crosstown expressway and peer over to the yard you will see this building.

Picture taken 1988

Oh, that old Infrastructure!

Well it's been awhile since I've last posted, and as inspiration is lacking I'll pull a post from the archives of unpublished thoughts.  So here it is a look at kooky bits of infrastructure from Tampa's past, or things that just look plain crazy to our modern eyes.  These are all things that were built to help the growing city flow, literally.

1.  WASTE WATER TREATMENT FIT FOR A KING!

City sewage disposal plant, septic tank building, on northwest corner of Twiggs and Twelfth Streets: Tampa, Fla

In what is now the channelside district, near the seaboard square apartments.

How'd you like this ride?

The weather is lovely and I want to ride my bicycle, but it needs some servicing.  So I'll share some images of bicycling throughout the years in Tampa.   It's great to see the old bicycles, however I am even more amazed to think of the conditions early cyclists faced in Tampa back in the day.

Leo Day, Postal Telegraph Messenger, 12 years old, and a very knowing lad. (See report of L.W.H.) Location: Tampa, Florida.