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An activist on the move

After years of giving voice to Hyde Park's concerns, Jeanne Holton Carufel is trading the city for country living.

By JANET ZINK
Published May 6, 2005

TAMPA - Hyde Park has been good to Jeanne Holton Carufel.

In the 26 years she has lived there, she has made friends and watched her neighborhood turn into one of Tampa's most desirable.

In return, Carufel has been good to Hyde Park.

She has taken on countless community causes and served as president of the Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association for five years.

Now she has decided it's time to trade the bustle of city streets for the quiet of the country.

This weekend she plans to post a for-sale sign in front of her old bungalow on W Hills Avenue in the heart of Historic Hyde Park. She paid $25,000 for the house in 1979. Her asking price will be about $600,000.

When she bought the house, Hyde Park was a neighborhood of rundown houses with a reputation for crime.

"My mother-in-law was appalled that I wanted to move to Hyde Park," she said. "She lived in Temple Terrace on the golf course and wanted me to move to a respectable neighborhood."

But Carufel saw the potential of what was then an affordable neighborhood. She fell in love with the 1925 bungalow's wood floors, high ceilings, wavy old glass windows and wood-burning fireplace.

"Houses like this can't be built anymore," she said, describing them as works of art that need to be protected.

"Anybody who's lucky enough to own one of these historically significant houses has a responsibility to protect it," she said.

Carufel became a community activist in the mid 1980s when a developer announced plans for Old Hyde Park Village, a project that required razing more than 15 houses. She and her neighbors fought to ensure the shopping district would blend into the neighborhood.

It wasn't the first time Carufel had been vocal on an issue. In college, she participated in Vietnam War protests.

"I've always been an activist, but I haven't always had the same cause," she said.

She took a break after her children were born, but got reinvolved with neighborhood issues when they were older. She weighs in on rezoning requests at City Council meetings and speaks at Historic Preservation Commission meetings. She also has helped raise money for Bern's Park on Howard Avenue and worked to install historic-looking street signs throughout her neighborhood.

Architect Roger Grunke, who serves on the neighborhood association board, praised Carufel for working tirelessly for the good of the neighborhood, whether she was lobbying for historic preservation or planning a block party.

"I can't tell you the number of times that a very, very small number of us - but always including Jeanne (Carufel) - have sat at City Council meetings until 1 or 1:30 in the morning to defend the interests of the neighborhood," Grunke said.

Shannon Edge, the city's director of neighborhood and community relations, described Carufel as "tenacious" and a "joy to work with."

"She's got spunk," Edge said. "We look at our neighborhood presidents to be our eyes and ears. Jeanne did a good job of keeping us in the know. It takes a special person to do volunteer work such as this."

Carufel said she'll continue her activism after she moves to Lake Echo in Keystone, a rural part of Hillsborough County experiencing development pressures. She bought the 2-acre property, which has four houses, four years ago with plans to retire there.

"Activism is alive and well in Keystone, and it's just a matter of time before we discover each other," she said.

Keystone also has a rich history, she pointed out.

The log house she'll live in was built in the late 1890s. Site plans that date back to Prohibition show a still next to the lake, which had a floating dance floor. Former U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper used to fish on that lake and wrote his name in the cement when the sidewalk was installed in front of Carufel's new house, she said.

But what Carufel really likes is the green space and huge cypress and pine trees.

"When you go out to that property, you feel like you're in a little piece of old Florida," she said. "It would be very hard for me to leave Hyde Park if I wasn't going to something so beautiful."

Still, Carufel said, she's not abandoning Hyde Park. Just moving away.

"I will be happily coming down the Veterans (Expressway) to continue the fight for the historic district," she said. "I have a SunPass."

Janet Zink can be reached at 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

AGE: 52

FAMILY: Husband, Mark Carufel; sons Joshua Holton, 19, and Carson Holton, 16; stepdaughters Amanda Carufel, 28, and Heather Carufel, 26.

SOUTH TAMPA GIRL: Carufel has lived within the same 2 square miles nearly all of her life.

MAKING (AIR) WAVES: Carufel is known in city circles as a neighborhood activist. But her greatest passion is community radio station WMNF-FM 88.5, where she has been a volunteer for 25 years. She hosts a Saturday morning folk music program.

DEEP ROOTS: Carufel's mother, who also grew up in South Tampa, used to ride horses and take the street car up and down Bayshore Boulevard.

SPEAKING OF BAYSHORE: Carufel's first husband died in a car accident on Bayshore Boulevard in 1991. Fourteen years later, Carufel served on the Bayshore Task Force created to come up with ways to make the street safer.

PAYING THE BILLS: When she's not advocating for the neighborhood or volunteering at WMNF, Carufel sells Hewlett Packard products.

[Last modified May 5, 2005, 01:31:12]