A Club for the Well-To-Do

While it’s easy to associate the Mediterranean revival Davis Island Country Club with D.P. Davis, the mastermind behind the development, the club did not open until after Davis mysteriously died at sea. Ostensibly, he was in great debt from what he marketed as a “$30 million supreme setting for distinguished Southern homes and playgrounds.” As the land boom turned to bust, he was unable to pay his debt and sold to the engineering firm of Stone and Webster, reportedly for pennies on the dollar. The final design was significantly smaller than the one advertised in the islands sales brochure.

The club opened in December 1926. The attached nine-hole golf course opened two years later and prevailed for years. The club and course were a dominant feature on the island, attracting the well-to-do since membership was restricted by a set of prominent Tampans. A unique feature of the building was a retractable roof that opened over the dance floor.

Over the next two decades, as Tampa grew, the golf course fell into disrepair. Owners sold it to the city of Tampa, which did not care for it the same way private owners might, and the grounds continued to deteriorate. In 1942, Company B Fifth Battalion of the Florida Defense Force, also known as the Florida State Guard, was housed here., Following the end of World War II in the late 1940s, demand for Davis Islands land increased, and the city formed the Byars-Thompson subdivision on the island and sold lots after closing the golf course. The country club continued to attempt to attract patrons. In 1947, Club Copacabana had an eight-piece orchestra and continued to offer dancing under the stars with the retractable roof. By 1948, the Davis Islands Country Club was known as the Islands Terrace Restaurant. By 1952, the Kerenoff School of Ballet opened in the building, offering ballet, tap, and acrobatics to the public. By the early 1960s, the building was known as the Davis Memorial Building, and inadequate upkeep was funded by the Davis Memorial Foundation. In 1962 they offered to donate the building to the county if the county was willing to purchase the land or offer a property trade. The county was disinterested. They put the building up for sale in 1964 for use as a church, youth center, or restaurant. Having no takers, the deteriorated building was demolished in 1966. Houses have been built in its place, and its former address of 455 Bosporus no longer exists.

© Chip Weiner. 2023. oldtampaphotos.com