Est. MMXXVI Tampa · Florida Vol. I · Issue No. 1

The stories Tampa forgot.

True history. Real places. The kind of things even longtime locals don't know. One forgotten Tampa story in your inbox every Thursday.

A Note from the Editor

There is a Tampa you have never been told about.

Beneath every parade route, beside every interstate, behind every plaque you've never stopped to read — there are stories this city has quietly forgotten. A pirate who never existed but whose festival still shuts down the streets. Two islands dredged from open water by a man who vanished mid-Atlantic. A tower built before Disney, sealed shut and standing still.

Forgotten Tampa is a weekly dispatch of the city's untold history. One real story. One vanished place. One name you'll want to repeat at the next dinner you go to.

The Tampa Bay Hotel, circa 1905
The Tampa Bay Hotel · c. 1905
Plate I · The Hotel Henry Plant built it for three million dollars when electricity was still a rumor in most of America. Peacocks roamed the lawns. Roosevelt left from here to invade Cuba. It still stands — you've walked past it a hundred times.

Inside the Free Story Pack

Seven stories you were never told.

Delivered to your inbox the moment you subscribe. Begin reading tonight.

  1. I.

    The Pirate Who Never Existed

    Tampa's biggest annual festival is built on a man invented in 1904 to sell hotel rooms.

    pg. 03
  2. II.

    The Islands Dredged from the Sea

    In 1924, Davis Islands did not exist. The man who built them vanished mid-Atlantic two years later.

    pg. 05
  3. III.

    The Tower No One Talks About

    214 feet tall. Sealed shut. Once the centerpiece of Florida's first theme park — decades before Disney.

    pg. 07
  4. IV.

    The Men Paid to Read Aloud

    In Ybor's cigar factories, lectors shaped the politics of a generation — until the owners shut them down in 1931.

    pg. 09
  5. V.

    The Night the Boss was Killed in His Own Bed

    April 1955. Charlie Wall, Tampa's first mob king, was found in his Hyde Park home. The case is still open.

    pg. 11
  6. VI.

    The Hotel Teddy Roosevelt Left to Invade Cuba

    Peacocks on the lawn. Electricity before New York. The most opulent building in the 1898 South — still standing.

    pg. 13
  7. VII.

    The Fire that Almost Erased Ybor

    March 1, 1908. Twelve city blocks of the cigar capital of the world burned in a single afternoon.

    pg. 15
A lector reads to cigar rollers in Ybor City, circa 1920
A lector reads aloud · Ybor City · c. 1920
Plate II · The Lectors Cigar rollers in Ybor pooled twenty-five cents a week to pay a man to climb a wooden platform and read to them — newspapers in the morning, novels in the afternoon. They were among the most well-read working people in America. In 1931 the factory owners shut them down.
“

Every city has the history it shows the tourists,
and the history it lets quietly disappear.

— Forgotten Tampa

Steam dredge building Davis Islands, 1924
A steam dredge builds Davis Islands from the bottom of the bay · 1924

One Last Thing

Begin reading tonight.

The Sulphur Springs Tower, circa 1928
Sulphur Springs Tower · c. 1928

Drop your email below and the 7-story pack arrives in your inbox in under a minute. Unsubscribe whenever you'd like.