In May of 1924, Bayshore Boulevard was still recovering from the devastating hurricane of 1921. Howard Avenue, pictured here, was the city limit, and much of Bayshore was a sandy beach at the water’s edge. Electric streetcar lines ran down the boulevard's center, shuffling passengers to Ballast Point and Port Tampa. The mid-1920s brought a housing boom to Bayshore, and many stately homes were built at that time, some of which are still in the background here.

Approximately one year after this Burgert photo was taken, the Bayshore-Royal Hotel was built. Many iterations later, the building stands (behind the trees) and is the Bayshore Royal Condominium. Billing itself as the first high-rise on Bayshore Blvd in the mid-1920s, the original structure was a 10-floor 220-room apartment hotel that added a rooftop garden area for a year later hosting social events. The “fireproof” rooms opened onto a sun balcony where guests could view the sunrise on Bayshore and Hillsborough Bay. The building was sold in 1930 and was renamed The Bayshore Colonial Hotel. Before installing the seawall and balustrade in the late 1930s, the new owners solicited developers to build and maintain a seaplane basin in front of the structure on Hillsborough Bay, hoping to draw wealthy private aviators. Those plans never came to fruition.

In 1972, the building was gutted and converted into 106 apartments, and in 1980, the building was sold again for conversion to condominiums. Fearing it would block their waterfront view, in 2003, residents objected to and prevailed over a proposal to the Tampa Architectural Review Commission to build the 31-story DeSoto Towers at Desoto and Bayshore. Their success was temporary. Hyde Park House, a 22-story, 70-unit tower, broke ground in August 2020 at that same corner. The cranes can be seen here. The new structure now partially obscures the once breathtaking views from the sun porches of the historic Bayshore Royal. The cost to build the 10-story Bayshore Royal in the 1920s was approximately $1.5 million. The asking price for one 3-bedroom, 3 ½ bath condo in Hyde Park House in 2020 is nearly $3 million.