Philip Shore Elementary School, 1908 E 2nd Ave

The Philip Shore Elementary School Burgert Brothers. 1921 Courtesy, The University of South Florida digital collection

The The Philip Shore Elementary School 2020. © Chip Weiner

Phillip Shore, born Filippo Costa, an immigrant from Italy in 1896, was a businessman and Henry B Plant System Railways employee but left the company when Atlantic Coast took over. He started the Phillip Shore Shipping Company and moved it to the Port of Tampa near Ybor City. Shore owned several tug boats and small freight steamers. Being an immigrant, he also understood the hardships of immigrant children working in the cigar industry and thought they would be better off with an education. He led the drive to build a school in the district to serve them.

In 1926, following his service as chairman of the Hillsborough County School Board from 1917 to 1922, the county dedicated the Phillip Shore Grammar School, built in the Italian section of Ybor City. Shore was involved in a car accident in 1929 and died from complications from his injuries at the age of 54.

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again, Vol. 2

Philip Shore School May Festival. 1952. Courtesy of the City of Tampa Archive