In this 1919 image, the Dekle Building at 1701-1703 Nebraska Avenue held the Villar Drug Store, which opened in 1918, the Palm Leaf Café and Restaurant, and the offices of Dr. Vidal Cruz on the second floor. It also housed Station No. 5 Tampa Post Office when owner A. Bastilio del Villar became a postal clerk in 1919. Over the years, the occupants of the building would experience numerous legal difficulties. In 1925, Villar was convicted of selling seven bottles of Bateman drops and half a gallon of paregoric, both containing opiates, to drug addicts. He was sentenced to one year and one day in Federal prison. He appealed his case; pending appeal, he jumped bail and migrated to Cuba. In 1926, he was arrested and sent to prison. In 1929, the owners of the Palm Leaf were enjoined from selling alcohol and were part of the 30 establishments (including the Columbia Café) subject to federal padlock proceedings. The injunctions restrained parties from liquor sales for six months and mandated a $1000 bond. By the mid-1930s, it was the All-American Café when owner Eddi Cancela was fined for operating a slot machine there.  

By the 1950s, the building housed the Brod and Morgan Realty Company. In the 1960s, Tampa  Park Apartments was built in the area to house longshoremen. When the complex was built, they closed off 6th Avenue and renamed the remaining street Henderson Avenue. By the early 1990s, the building was gone, and Church's Chicken opened a store here, which lasted until 2007. By 2008, Church’s was boarded up until late 2022, when the building was torn down. In 2022, it was announced that the Tampa Park complex, then low-income housing, would be demolished with no plan for what would happen with the land.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved