Farners Shoes, 1918 S Dale Mabry Hwy

Farners Shoes. 1918 S Dale Mabry Hwy. Date unknown. © Skip Gandy..Courtesy of the University of South Florida Digital Collection

Farners Shoes first opened in downtown Tampa in 1932 at 507 Franklin St. Owners Sam and Bessie Edelstein moved the store in the 1960s to 1918 S. Dale Mabry, in the Carriage Trade Plaza. It was a Tampa staple for back-to-school shoes and an old-fashioned full-service family shoe store where kids got a balloon with every new pair. As trends changed and national brands took over retail space, Farners closed up shop in 2001. Life Path Hospice, the current tenant in the building, opened its Life’s Treasures thrift store in 2002 to benefit the patients and families in hospice care. They have since become a South Tampa favorite for “thrifting.” The apartment building visible behind Farners on Clearview (its address is actually 3709 San Rafael) was built in 1955, a few years before Farners moved in. It has been updated and is still an apartment building.