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Southern Hillsborough County History
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The Southern Hillsborough County Historical Connections Project is a collaborative endeavor between the SouthShore Campus of Hillsborough Community College (HCC) and esteemed community partners including the Ruskin History Project, Inc., the Firehouse Cultural Center, the Ruskin Women's Club, the Sun City History Center, and the International Independent Showmen's Museum. This ambitious undertaking aims to document and celebrate the diverse townships south of the Alafia River, weaving together their unique narratives into a tapestry of regional heritage.
This project was made possible through funding from the Community Foundation of Tampa Bay and the HCC Foundation.
For more information about this project, contact Roxanna Palmer, SouthShore Librarian, at rpalmer15@hccfl.edu.
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- Title: Apollo Beach Collection
- Description: The 5,500 acres tract of land that was to be known as Apollo Beach was first deeded to Paul Dickman in 1920 and used annually for farming and grazing pasture and considered uninhabitable. In the early 1950s, Dickman negotiated the sale of the land to three men from New York: Turner, Dean and Cla...
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- Title: Gibsonton Collection
- Description: Gibsonton was a popular winter fishing destination for many carnival and sideshow workers in the 1940s according to Mark Caramanica. It was the only place in the U.S. where the former fire chief was over eight feet tall and the local police chief was a dwarf! Gibtown, as it’s called, was near...
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- Title: Riverview Collections
- Abstract/Description: Benjamin Moody is the first recorded settler in what is today's Riverview, establishing a homestead in 1842. In 1856, the small town of Peru (pronounced Pee-Roo) was founded on the Alafia River's south shore where today's US 301 crosses the river. The river's name, Alafia, is often believed to deri...
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- Title: Ruskin Collection
- Description: Introduction In its early days Ruskin was so isolated that you needed a boat to easly travel to Tampa or St Petersburg and the trip would take several hours each way. But timber and turpentine were available for construction because prior to 1906 a turpentine factor...
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- Title: Small Towns and Ghost Towns Collection
- Description: There are a number of small towns, some still identifiable (Sun City, Balm and Fort Lonesome, are three extant small communties), and some that have long since disappeared in southern Hillsborough County (Remlap, , Adamsville, Peru, and Boyette, as examples). This collection will house items fro...
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- Title: Southern Hillsborough County - General Collections
- Abstract/Description: This collection includes history and photos NOT associated with a particular South County community, but rather dealing with regional issues in South Hillsborough County.
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- Title: Sun City Center Collections
- Abstract/Description: Del Webb (who was half owner of the New York Yankees) built the Kings Inn with a luxury restaurant and a 20 unit motel in just 30 days. Businessmen from Tampa and Sarasota would often fly in for lunch and a private place to talk. There was an airstrip across 674 from the Inn. The taxiway is now the ...
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- Title: Wimauma Collection
- Description: Captain C.H. Davis founded Wimauma in 1902. The town site was located on a 55-mile railroad route from Durant to Manatee County and into Sarasota. Wimauma, a farm based community, has 6,500 year-round residents, and increases with the farming seasons to 11,000+. Wimauma is truly special becaus...