The Tampa Tribune was first published in 1895 and started by Col. W.F. Stovall and other board members. Stovall would go on to buy out the others and published the paper for 32 years until he sold it in 1925 in a bizarre deal for $ 1.2 million. The paper had several homes starting on the second floor of the Tampa Drug Company at 309 Washington Street.  During his stewardship, Stovall later moved to a frame building on Franklin Street and several other locations. After ownership and management changed hands, the Tribune Company bought the land in 1935 at Lafayette and Morgan and constructed this Art Nouveau headquarters. The company would, after that, buy the remainder of the block where the filling station can be seen on the right.

Ever growing, the paper, after acquisitions and mergers and being purchased by Media General in 1967, moved to a new plant on Parker Street next to its new affiliate, WFLA Television, in 1975. The former Tribune building was demolished in 1977. The appropriately named $25-million, 20-story 501 East Kennedy Tower opened in its place in 1981. 

In October 2012, the Tampa Tribune and its associated print and digital products were acquired by Tampa Media Group, Inc., a new company formed by Revolution Capital Group. The Parker Street building was sold. The Tampa Tribune folded into the St Petersburg Times; the new publication, Tampa Bay Times, is now published by Times Publishing Company, owned by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

© Chip Weiner