Ben Hill Chevrolet Company, 109 North Oregon Avenue

Ben Hill Chevrolet Company, 109 North Oregon Avenue. 1926. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy of the Hillsborough County Library

Tampa General Rehabilitation Hospital. 1307 W Kennedy Blvd. 2023. © Chip Weiner

Ben Hill moved to Tampa in 1917 and opened his first Chevrolet dealership in 1924. However, by 1926, as his business grew, he found it necessary to move into these new headquarters at the corner of North Oregon Avenue and Grand Central Ave(now Kennedy Boulevard). It was three times the size of his original store. The two-story building had the entire service department on the second floor, with a showroom, offices, and a parts department on the first. They even had a service man there overnight.

In 1930, in the middle of the Great Depression, Ben Hill dba Ben Hill Chevrolet was sued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta for default. Thereafter, any mention of the business disappeared from records, possibly implying the business went bankrupt. In 1931, Hill was appointed superintendent of Tampa's sanitation department. After resigning in 1936, he became the street supervisor for the city engineering department. He died in 1957 at the age of 68. In 1936, the building was home to Bell Electrical Engineers Inc., which specialized in refrigeration. It was demolished, and the lot sat empty for decades. In 2020, construction began on the Tampa General Rehabilitation Hospital, which is now open.

© Chip Weiner 2023. All rights reserved

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again Vol. 2