In a rather courageous decision in 1921, the Hyde Park Hotel opened directly across Lafayette Street (Kennedy Boulevard) from the Tampa Bay Hotel, one of the area’s most luxurious and famous resorts. By that time, the City of Tampa operated it. The Hyde Park Hotel had 43 rooms and a dining hall serving guests and the public. It was also adjacent to the Lafayette and Hensley arcades that housed both grooming services and shopping for interested tourists flocking to the area. By November 1922, the name had changed to the Whitledge Hotel and Café, and by early 1923, it was the Grand Central Hotel.

The building has shuffled many businesses through it since that time. In the early 1960s, The Fabric Mart, followed by Lynn’s Bedspread Shop later that decade, did business here. At that time, it also housed a barbershop. Now towering over the property is a 182-bed University of Tampa student dormitory, originally named Kennedy Place Residence Hall. It cost $15.6 million to build and opened in 2006. In 2008, it was renamed for Frank P. Urso, M.D. Hall following a $3 million gift from the retired pathologist.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved