Before the building of the interstate system close to downtown in the 1960s, Florida Avenue was the main thoroughfare for stores and, on the north end of downtown, many automobile-related businesses. Boyle Motor Company was a regional organization and in 1937, became the new associate Ford dealership in Tampa at their location on 1101 East Broadway (now 7th Avenue). They later had a dealership on the corner of Cass and Ashley Streets, where the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library now sits. They needed a place to sell the used cars they took in trade, and this was it.

By the late 1950s, plans for Interstate 275 were being made.  It now intersects with Florida Avenue, one block south of this location. The lot is now a substation for Tampa Electric Company.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved