In a testament to its time in 1926, when cars were becoming more popular than horse-drawn buggies, a sign in the middle of this photo reads, “NOTICE: DON’T HITCH OR LET TEAMS STAND HERE. POLICE DEPARTMENT. Harding’s Double Tread Sewed Tires was a wooden building on North Tampa St. with a business on the first floor and living quarters on the second. Tires sold for between $2.50 and $5.50. Gauging by newspaper advertisements, they were in business from 1920 to 1926.

In 1957, Howell Motors, Tampa’s only Volkswagen dealership at the time, opened here. They sold and serviced cars at this location for 30 years. The intersecting Harrison Street was terminated in both directions: to the west when Interstate 275 was constructed in the 1960s and to the east when modifications to Franklin Street were made. The property is now a parking lot.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved