Tampa Daily Times and Fielder and Mitchell buildings, 100 block of Franklin Street

Tampa Daily Times with the earlier-built Times Building around corner, and the Fielder and Mitchell Building on 100 block of Franklin Street. 1927. Burgert Brothers. Courtesy, Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System

Franklin Street was closed, and a parking lot now sits where the building once stood. 2021.© Chip Weiner

Ship chandlery company Fielder and Mitchell built this center building in 1923, the same year The Times (founded 1893) constructed the structure on the right of the photo with the awnings on the second floor. Fielder and Mitchell planned to use the building close to the shipping industry on the Hillsborough River for the business, which was mainly centered on the steamship trade. The Times was moving their plant to double their printing capacity, and by 1922, they were associated with radio station WDAE broadcasting live here. Notice the radio tower on their building.

In 1978, General Telephone Co. of Florida began a four-block construction project, including a hotel, office structure, and parking garage known as Tampa City Center. The block was leveled and that section of Franklin street closed and incorporated into the courtyard of the new development. The lot is now a surface parking lot.

From Burgert Brothers: Look Again, Vol. 1