As Tampa drew more and more tourists, attractions like Sulphur Springs became popular. Developer Josiah Richardson saw the opportunity the natural spring water, reported to have healing powers, presented and spent decades developing the once-independent community of Sulphur Springs. Tourists and locals alike flocked here by streetcar to visit the natural swimming pool with a large toboggan flume dropping swimmers into the Hillsborough River.  Along with his amusement park, Richardson opened a hotel and an arcade reported as the first inside Florida shopping mall. The area’s popularity necessitated building this water tower in 1927 to supply the hotels, other businesses, and residents demanded.

Richardson mortgaged all of his property to build the tower. To his misfortune, the Treasure Coast Hurricane of 1933 dropped so much rain that the Tampa Electric Company dam upriver was breached, causing massive flooding in Sulphur Springs and leaving Richardson properties in ruin. It was the middle of the Great Depression, and Richardson was broke and forced to sell to South Carolina tobacco grower J.F. Hendrick, whose family owned it until it was sold to the Tampa Greyhound Track. In 1951, a drive-in theatre opened next to the tower and remained a popular destination for mid-century residents. It lasted over forty years. The tower was also a landmark for air traffic approaching the military base Drew Field to the southwest. It remains an icon for thousands of daily travelers along I-275 and Florida Avenues.

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