Merchants and Mechanics Bank of Tampa was chartered in 1923 and built a one-story building for $11,500. It opened that same year. With an optimistic outlook, in 1926, they added two additional stories to the original structure. This photograph also might offer an interesting peek into some of the social dynamics in the 1920s. Front and center are a group of presumably bank employees, with an African-American man at the bottom left peering into the frame.

As national and local economic problems loomed, on January 1, 1927, a merger of the Merchants and Mechanics Bank and the Lafayette Bank was announced, and the consolidation of property followed. By 1929, the Great Depression was in full swing taking its economic toll. In 1937,  Hyman’s Complete Food Store opened here, becoming Mensh’s store in 1944. By 1949, the property was again for sale. In the 1960s, it was a factory tile outlet, and by 1990, it was home to the Pentecostal Church of God. The building has since been demolished, and the land has been absorbed into a larger square-block tract, with Wendy’s Hamburgers and Walmart being two of the tenants.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved