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By MICHAEL CANNINGPhilip Shore School of the Arts
Like many immigrants who came to America, Philip Shore started a business from nothing and made it a success. Then he vowed to help others who endured similar hardships.
Shore was born in Sicily on July 7, 1875. In 1891, he was working as a cabin boy on a Naples passenger ship bound for Ellis Island. After immigrating, he used his earnings to open a vegetable stand in New York City's Little Italy.
Shore's business was successful. But with that prosperity, says his grandson Philip Shore III, came the Black Hand, an early term ascribed to the American Mafia. Thugs tried to shake him down for protection money, "but in actuality, he beat up the bad boys three or four times," says Shore III, 58, of Lake Panasoffkee.
Nonetheless, Shore decided to head south. He ended up in Port Tampa in 1898 and opened a grocery store. His timing was perfect. Thousands of U.S. troops were debarking from the port to fight in the Spanish-American War, and his business thrived. He sold it in 1908 and was hired by Henry B. Plant as a shipping agent.
Two years later, he established the Philip Shore Shipping Co. Within a year, he moved it from Port Tampa to the Port of Tampa near downtown. In 1917, Shore was appointed to the Hillsborough County School Board.
Shore III said his grandfather saw the hardships faced by children of Tampa's immigrant cigar workers, which reminded him of his early days in New York City. "Kids were working for 10 cents an hour and not getting an education," he said.
Shore led an effort to build a school to serve the children of Ybor City. Philip Shore Elementary opened Sept. 18, 1922, at 1908 E Second Ave.
Shore was injured in a car accident during a trip home from Tallahassee, where he was appealing to the governor for tighter control of Tampa's stevedore labor unions. He died shortly thereafter in 1929 at age 53.
Although the name Shore doesn't sound very Sicilian, its Italian translation is costa. Before coming to America, Philip Shore's name was Philipe Costa.
Today, his school serves as an elementary magnet for performings arts, visual arts and communications.
- Source: Philip Shore III, Hillsborough County School District.