Bill Currie Ford erected this store at 3319 Florida Avenue after the Borden Dairy Company moved to Tampa Bay Boulevard and Lois Avenue circa 1961. Wilmer Eden “Bill” Currie Jr, bought Tampa’s only Ford dealership, Holtsinger Ford, in 1960 and originally located at the corner of Florida Ave and Henderson in Tampa Heights. He moved to this location in September 1962, around the same time this photo was taken by Skip Gandy. Currie spent a little over a decade in this building before moving to larger quarters at Dale Mabry and Hillsborough Ave in 1973. In 1974, the building was for lease when it had a catastrophic fire. Tampa Bay Foreign Cars did a stint on the property in the early 1980s. Caliber Collision, an auto collision repair center, is now on the corner. Mr. Currie died in 2005, leaving behind an auto empire with annual sales of $200 million.

© 2023. Chip Weiner. Old Tampa Photos