Tampa, Florida, which has lengthy celebrated its reference to swashbuckling Spanish pirate Jose Gaspar in a yearly pageant, has loads of hidden treasures past its standard attraction of solar, surf and sand.
As the most important sports activities spectacle of the yr, Tremendous Bowl LV, rolls into city Feb. 7, most NFL Expertise festivities will happen on the Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, a part of the Tampa Riverwalk, a 2.6-mile path that winds alongside the Hillsborough River.
The riverwalk passes by Tampa’s artwork, historical past and kids’s museums; the Florida Aquarium; locations to lease kayaks, water bikes and paddleboards; and 30 sculpted busts of notable Tampa residents.
A spot for guests to soak within the wealthy stew of Tampa’s historical past and tradition is the 11-acre Perry Harvey Sr. Park, which provides classes in native Black historical past advised via murals, images and kooky sculptures.
The park is close to the previous Central Avenue Enterprise District, the town’s hub of Black tradition and entrepreneurship from the late Eighteen Eighties to the late Sixties. It was residence to greater than 100 thriving Black-owned companies and a vibrant music scene that showcased a who’s who of singers and musicians reminiscent of Ray Charles, B.B. King and Ella Fitzgerald.
Fred Hearns, a historian who gave excursions about native Black historical past for 13 years, stated it was in Tampa the place a teenage Charles started to hone his abilities as a performer and made one among his earliest recordings, “St. Pete Florida Blues” — aka “I Discovered My Child There” — whereas residing right here for about two years within the late Forties. He wrote the tune about Tampa however selected to call it after the town on the opposite aspect of the bay as a result of he thought extra individuals had heard of St. Petersburg’s seashores, Hearns stated.
Some of the well-liked dance crazes of the twentieth century doubtless obtained its begin in Tampa, Hearns stated. Whereas bandleader Hank Ballard was enjoying within the nightclubs alongside Central Avenue, he was impressed to jot down and file “The Twist” after seeing some teenagers doing the hip-gyrating transfer in 1958. A couple of years later, the music turned a sensation when Chubby Checker recorded it and popularized the dance.
Cuban, Spanish and Sicilian immigrants flocked to Tampa’s Ybor Metropolis within the Eighteen Eighties and Eighteen Nineties for work within the cigar factories, the place they churned out tens of millions of stogies a yr. Many factories are lengthy gone however guests can nonetheless see cigars being made by hand in some retailers. The Cuban sandwich was first made right here for a fast however filling lunch for manufacturing facility employees. Immediately, the world is brimming with eating places, nightclubs, lodges, retailers and museums.
Additionally price visiting:
• Tampa Theatre, a 1926 ornate film palace whose inside includes a Wurlitzer organ and recreates the environment of a Mediterranean courtyard beneath a sky of twinkling, 10-watt stars.
• The College of Tampa, in-built 1891, options silvery minarets, Moorish structure and gingerbread facade, and was as soon as residence to one among Florida’s most interesting lodges — now a museum.
For strolling excursions and knowledge, go to tampabayhistorycenter.org or tampabay.com.
