The Jackson Grain Co, once the Miller-Jackson Grain Company, was established in the early 1900s when horse feed was much more important in town than gasoline. With its new warehouse and grain elevator stationed next to the railyard on Ashley Dr. in 1913, its shipping facilities had access to both water and rail, enabling them to handle vast amounts of stock. R.W. Miller left the company in 1920. By the 1930s they distributed other things related to agriculture including cream machines and fertilizer. The founder, Frank D. Jackson, died in 1947.

The company was contracted to handle spent grain for the Schlitz Brewery in Tampa. By 1960, the city was looking to revise the waterfront, rehabilitate the railyard, and build a new auditorium on the Jackson Grain site. The city bought the land, and plans to dismantle the site were made in 1961, the same year the company- under the leadership of the founder’s son Frank Jackson II- sold to Nutrena. The Curtis Hixon Convention Center was constructed and opened in 1965. The grain site was used as a surface parking lot. The multi-level 932-space Bill Poe parking garage now on the plot was constructed in the 1970s and is now the main parking facility for the Straz Performing Arts Center and the adjacent Curtis Hixon Park.

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