Looking at it today, it is hard to imagine that Ashley Drive in the 1920s was lined with warehouses, feed stores, and other businesses that fronted the Atlantic Coast Line rail yard along the east bank of the Hillsborough River.  The entire view of the water was blocked from Polk Street to Lafayette (now Kennedy Blvd). Swift and Company was a meat packing and curing business from Chicago that started in the late 1800s, the same era this office and storage house was built. They secured the contract to supply 30,000 U.S. Government troops in Cuba with meat, and their Tampa location is where the company gathered and shipped railcar loads of engines, boilers, and supplies to Havana for their new refrigerated packing plant.

In 1962, after over 60 years in the same location, Swift began constructing a new building at Coachman and Grady streets with plans to raze this structure. The city intended to clean up the area, including the old rail yard behind it, and businesses moved. Plans were being made to construct Curtis Hixon Hall, an indoor sports, concert, and convention center on the land. It opened in 1965 and lasted until 1993, when the building was demolished, and the land was converted into a public park. The new Tampa Art Museum, Glazer Children’s Museum, and Tampa Riverwalk were built adjacent to the new Curtis Hixon Park in the following years.  

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved