Tourists, land speculators, and wealth seekers flocked to Tampa between 1918 and 1926, hoping to strike it rich in real estate or just be part of the fast-growing city that was Tampa. When they visited, they needed a place to stay, and dozens of hotels opened in the area, many on the second floor of mixed-use buildings. The Equitable Apartment Hotel at 1432 Franklin St at Franklin and Scott St. was one such building. Known as the Crenshaw Building, the $40,000 structure had just opened in 1922 in the section of town known as Upper Franklin when this photo was taken. With spaces for five businesses, New Orleans Shoe Repair, Hook Furniture Co., and Pietro Lazzara Cigar Factory No. 932 took up retail space on the first floor.

Over the following 50 years, businesses came and went. Grocery stores, furniture retailers, and others sold their goods and services here. In 1936, the building was sold, and the hotel was renamed the Ft. Thomas Hotel. The property on upper Franklin became depressed. Now sliced in half by I-275, newspaper articles called Upper Franklin Skid Row starting in the late 1960s, as homeless people primarily inhabited it. In 1973, there was a brief positive spark of hope when five Tampa artists established studios on the 1400 block. It didn’t last. The building has been demolished and is now a parking lot for the Trammell Building next door.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved