Pioneer Tire Company, 901 Grand Central Avenue

Pioneer Tire Company, 901 Grand Central Avenue, with gas pumps and customers in service bays; this store has Goodrich sign and palm. 1930.Burgert Brothers. Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

University of Tampa- 901 Grand Central Avenue. 2021. © Chip Weiner

The name of the founder of the Pioneer Tire Company will be familiar to most area residents and many travelers. William Howard Franklin, the namesake of the bridge spanning Tampa Bay, opened the Pioneer Service Station after moving to Tampa in 1925. This station was at Grand Central (now Kennedy Blvd.) and North Boulevard. The tower in the middle of the building became a landmark. Due to his original success, Franklin had money to invest, even as the Great Depression began. He built two more stores, including a similar station in downtown Tampa on Whiting Street and another in St. Petersburg in Coral Park. The company then changed its name to Pioneer Tire Company.

In the mid-1960s, the service station was known as Buxton Standard, which briefly hosted a car rental service called Rent a Ride Inc. Williams Standard Service then followed, as did Paul Shephard’s Standard after that. By 1971, Chaire’s Chevron had taken over and lasted through the mid-80s. In 2015, the University of Tampa acquired the land as a vacant lot and has since fenced it in and turned it into a private faculty parking lot.

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again, Vol. 1

Crowd watching a man pose on the roof top of the Pioneer Tire Company building [Whiting Street Location}. 1929. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy of the University of South Florida

The Pioneer Tire Company [on Whiting St downtown]. Date unknown. Courtesy of the University of South Florida