What's in a name?

Tampa parking garage bears name of Army lt. colonel

George M. Brooke helped carry out Indian displacement and containment policies.

By MICHAEL CANNING, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published March 21, 2003

The fortress-like parking facility that stretches over three downtown blocks commemorates an Army fort that once stretched from Thonotosassa to the Alafia River.

Though downsized a number of times by the federal government, Fort Brooke was nonetheless the seed from which Tampa would grow.

Born in Virginia in 1785, George Mercer Brooke joined the Army in 1808 as first lieutenant of infantry. He developed a reputation as a man with a high sense of duty and honor, one who avoided military politicking. He served with distinction in the War of 1812.

Brooke was a lieutenant colonel by the time the Army dispatched him to Tampa Bay in 1824. His mission: to establish a fort that would help carry out the government's Indian displacement and containment policies.

Brooke founded the fort on the northeast bank of the Hillsborough River where it enters Hillsborough Bay, now the site of the Tampa Bay Convention Center. Not long after the fort took shape, it was named for him, initially Cantonment Brooke. It's boundaries grew from a few dozen acres to 16 square miles.

Brooke's otherwise successful 51/2-year stint at Fort Brooke was marred by personal hardship. His wife was stricken with several illnesses that prompted Brooke to take furloughs. In 1828, two of his children died of bilious fever. Soon after, another child was born dead.

In 1829, Brooke was transferred to Fort Mitchell in Alabama, a post that monitored the Creek Indians. In 1831, he was promoted to full colonel and given command of the Fifth Infantry Regiment, headquartered at Fort Macinac, Michigan Territory. The Mexican War (1846-48) brought Brooke to Texas. He died in San Antonio in 1851, as an acting major general in command of the Department of Texas.

More than 40,000 soldiers passed through Fort Brooke it during the Second Seminole War (1835-42). It also played minor roles in the Third Seminole War (1855-58) and Civil War, after which it was abandoned.

Today the old fort has more than a parking garage to carry its name. The Krewe of Fort Brooke, formed in 1992, uses period costumes and a wooden fort float to raise awareness of the military settlement that begat Tampa.

-- Sources: Tampa Bay History Center, Florida Division of Historical Resources.

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