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Glancing back at boomtown

A weeklong celebration serves as a history lesson on the area's economic prosperity and culture.

By ALEXANDRA ZAYAS
Published April 7, 2006

Tampa's hippest history buff Devin Marks has a lesson to teach, beginning with some numbers: In 1875, only 720 people lived in the Tampa Bay area. Fifty years later, in 1925, more than 100,000 people called it home.

"The question is: What happened?" Marks said. "The answer is: Everything."

Cow herding. Railroads. Citrus. Cigars. Real estate.

The first commercial airline flight took off from St. Petersburg, and the first fire brigade stopped Tampa from burning down every couple of years.

Historians call it Tampa Bay's boomtown. Marks calls it an explosion, from Cracker to flapper. Beginning Saturday, that blast will be condensed into a week of hands-on history during the first Florida Heritage Celebrat!on, hosted by Marks' nonprofit organization, Reclaiming our Heritage.

Tampa highlights include:

* A Cracker Country kickoff celebration, with rural games, gardening and food.

* Renaissance in Old West Tampa, including a Magical History Tour led by Judge E.J. Salcines and artist Maida Millan and memories shared by West Tampa natives as part of the Voces de West Tampa oral history project.

* Living history, including swashbucklers at downtown's Oaklawn Cemetery and a Victorian play at the H.B. Plant Museum.

* Boomtown works by local artists on display at Mirta's Gallery at 119 S Hyde Park Ave., boomtown films shown in Old Hyde Park Village and boomtown stories told in local libraries.

* A tour through Tampa Theatre, an 1880s wine tasting at the Wine Exchange and a cigar tour at King Corona Cigars in Ybor City.

As part of the event, volunteers and children in Big Brothers and Big Sisters will kick off Hip'story Learning Adventures, a series of field trips and learning assignments sponsored by Reclaiming our Heritage to make history fun.

"That is a wonderful series of ways to engage a young mind and heart with the history bug," Marks said.

Marks' history bug bit him in his grandmother's attic in Kentucky as he dug through copies of his grandfather's old Tampa Daily Times issues, dating to the 1890s.

He noticed one chunk was missing -1893 through 1912.

So in 2004, Marks left his successful marketing firm in Washington, D.C., to launch an Indiana Jones-esque hunt for the missing book and gather as much of Tampa's boomtown history and artifacts as possible along the way. Reclaiming Our Heritage, his nonprofit, was born.

The Florida Heritage Celebrat!on could not have come at a better time, Marks said. He believes Tampa is in the midst of its own modern boomtown era.

The Trump tower and growing condo development are reminiscent of D.P. Davis' development of Davis Islands. Baby boomers are migrating toward the warm weather, making Tampa home.

"That boom of yesterday is echoed in today's boom," Marks said. "The players on the stage of the bay area have changed from generation to generation, but they're in the same play. They're telling the same stories."

Alexandra Zayas can be reached at 813-226-3354 or azayas@sptimes.com.

[Last modified April 6, 2006, 14:16:28]