The Tampa Bay area has a rich and fascinating history. Truly an international city, Tampa attracted its residents from all over the world, and the city's natural deep-water port and proximity to the Panama Canal encouraged significant growth around the turn of the twentieth century. Visionary pioneers came together with Henry B. Plant's railroad, the construction of the Tampa Bay Hotel, and Tampa's five "C's" (climate, cattle, citrus, cigars, and cheap labor) to build the city that became the "Gem of Florida's Gulf Coast." During this same period in Tampa's history, from the 1890s through the 1920s, the postcard was an extraordinarily popular means of communication. Postcard photographers traveled the nation snapping photographs of busy street scenes, documenting local landmarks, and assembling crowds of local children only too happy to pose for a picture. These images, printed as postcards and sold in general stores across the country, survive as telling reminders of an important era in American history.

Tampa's Hyde Park was a beautifully located frontier that was not discovered until the latter part of the 19th century. Scattered tiny settlements were farmed and fished along Hillsborough Bay. The fine climate and natural resources lingered until Henry B. Plant arrived with his railroad and steamship line in 1884. Then, like magic, Hyde Park exploded into a visionary community. O.H. Platt created Hyde Park's original subdivision, and Plant opened a fanciful jewel of America's Gilded Age, the Tampa Bay Hotel. In less than 10 years, the backwater that was located along the western edge of Hillsborough Bay became Florida's first magic kingdom. As the Victorian period ended and the 20th century emerged, Hyde Park embraced the aesthetics and cultural changes of the new century. Bungalows dominated new housing in Hyde Park, providing architectural modernism for the emerging middle class. Today, Hyde Park has among the largest intact collections of Craftsman and Prairie houses in the United States.

Historic Photos of Tampa follows the evolving culture of the "Cigar Capital of the World" through one of the finest archives in the city, Burgert Brothers archive from the Tampa Hillsborough County Public Library. Beginning in the mid-1860's, this book illustrates the development of Tampa from the Civil War period through the turn of the century, two World Wars and into a modern era. With around two hundred archival photographs reproduced on heavy art paper, this book is a perfect addition to any historian's collection.

Consider these improbable vistas found along the shores of Tampa Bay--an abandoned island fortress stands guard over a federally-designated bird sanctuary. The remains of a ruined cross-bay bridge are repurposed into one of the best fishing spots in the bay. A failed movie studio serves as the backlot to a thriving intertidal mangrove forest. An active power plant provides the region's most reliable refuge for vulnerable manatees. From Philippe Park to Fort DeSoto, from Boyd Hill to Weedon Island, from the Skyway Fishing Pier to Big Bend Manatee Viewing Center, The Unlikely Parks of Tampa Bay: A Scenic History offers a rousing look at the roundabout backstories behind ten of the region's most beloved natural spaces. Featuring more than 130 stunning photos, it is also a reminder--in case you needed it--that wild Florida is very much alive in Tampa Bay.

Tampa's Davis Islands has long been among the most desirable places to live on Florida's west coast. Built from mud dredged from the bottom of the Tampa Bay, it's possible few thought the project would amount to very much, with the exception of its creator, David P. Davis. The developer and Tampa native Davis purchased the dredged land in the 1920s during the Florida land boom; the gamble paid off in dividends, as the Davis Islands made him wildly rich and nationally famous. He followed the Islands up with a subdivision twice its size in St. Augustine, which he named Davis Shores. Davis sold his Tampa development in August 1926, but he slipped into debt and died under mysterious circumstances while en route to Europe aboard a luxury liner only months later. Though their creator did not live to see it, work on Davis Islands continued, and the development ultimately became an unmitigated success. Join author Rodney Kite-Powell as he examines the history of one of Florida's most famous neighborhoods.