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Letter to the editor

Of picnics and pride

Heirs want to build an event center where a black oasis once thrived.

By JACKIE RIPLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published August 15, 2007

It's hard to believe that the old Walker Motel, disheveled as it is, was once a focal point of the Odessa landscape.

But for 20 years the block building on Lake Raleigh was a prime vacation spot for African-Americans across Central Florida.

"It was the only place you could go," said Linda Arenas, daughter of the original proprietor, the late James Sterling Walker. "You couldn't go to Ben T. Davis Beach; you couldn't go to Clearwater."

African-Americans, though, could go to the Walker Motel, an oasis in the segregated South of the '60s. On the lake, they could picnic, party and, once the motel was built in 1963, stay overnight.

Fifty years later, James and Mabel Walker's children and grandchildren want to build an event center for the entire community and bring back some of that sense of camaraderie.

"It was mother's wish to use the beauty of the lake," Linda Arenas said. "And it would be in line with Father's interests to serve the community."

Realizing that dream will involve no small measure of bureaucracy. Hillsborough County officials will have to be convinced that a lakefront community center does not violate the Keystone community plan, a set of county-sanctioned guidelines that seek to protect the area's rural character.

And the family would need to go before that county's Historic Resources Review Board before tearing down the old motel, a place rich in history.

African-Americans from all over Central Florida congregated there for countless social gatherings during the '50s and '60s. It was the destination for everything from prom night parties and weddings to birthdays and church outings. It also was the spot where hundreds of families would converge to celebrate Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day.

"There was a cherry hedge, orange, grapefruit and tangerine trees, and we had an archway between the house and the lake," Linda Arenas said. "They tore all that down to build the hotel and dredged up sand to create a beach."

Arenas, 58, also recalled how her parents would charge beachgoers 50 cents to use the property.

They could spend the entire day, grill in the barbecue pit, gather under picnic shelters, and swim and water-ski in the lake.

The property also has an infamous side. People have "heard stories that it's haunted and there are ghosts," said Carmen Arenas, a granddaughter. "We've had to lock it up to keep them from trespassing."

There also was a time in the '60s when, unknown to the Walkers, some members of the Black Panthers hid out at the motel. According to family legend and press accounts, a shootout with the FBI left a member of the militant group dead.

Then, in 1972, James Walker, 59, was shot and killed during a robbery. Family members say he was alone inside the motel office when he was robbed.

Had the 1972 shooting not occurred, Linda Arenas thinks history might have written a far different story. The motel, she believes, not only would have kept abreast of the times but would have flourished.

Family members also might have retained more of the original 80 acres that were in the Walker-Allen family since Mabel Walker's grandfather bought the land in 1881.

Today, with only 3.5 acres on Lake Raleigh still in the family, the heirs of James and Mabel Walker want to create something that will not only benefit the family but will be a point of pride for the community.

[Last modified August 14, 2007, 22:21:45]