The Official Unofficial Seminole Heights Blog

READER COMMENTS BELOW:

Anonymous says:
June 5, 2009 at 7:56 pm
6. The walk up Dairy Queen on Hillsborough Ave.

Anonymous says:
June 5, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Remember when they moved the building that is now Bungalow Bistro From Hillsborough Ave to it’s current location?

Anonymous says:
June 5, 2009 at 10:50 pm
I like this post…thanks for something positive!!

Remember when there was a camera store on the north east corner of Florida & Hillsborough?

Remember when Fountain Car Wash was on East Hillsborough Ave. (and it actually had a fountain out front)?

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 12:16 am (Edit)
…when Erwin Tech used to be a Super Sears with one of the longest escalators in Tampa ( I believe 2nd only to the bigger one at Busch Gardens taking you across a big cement pond and to the top of the brewery?

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 1:11 am
… when tha Macy’s furniture store @ Hillsborough & Armenia was a Grand Way << an early version of Wal-Mart.

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 2:18 am
“when tha Macy’s furniture store @ Hillsborough & Armenia was a Grand Way”
I remember that.

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 2:27 am
Oh, I forgot about the camera store.

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 3:24 am
Oh my, I worked in that Sears!! In the credit dept. All the charge customers’ records were on micro fisch (sp?)! That was 1970-71

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 4:00 am
I recall a Zayre’s Dept store on the Southside of Hillsborough somewhere before 40th St. My Mom shopped there for us kid’s new school clothes back around 1970. The Sears was there too at that time.

Dan says:
June 6, 2009 at 4:33 am
I Remember the Tropics playing at Sears Dept Store.I remember the Outsides playing at Sligh Jr High School(go Devils)Hell I remember Ernie Lee at the grand Opening of Northgate

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 8:24 am
The Sulphur Springs Post Office used to be an A&P Grovery Store.

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 9:06 am
When there were basketball hoops and tennis courts instead of a parking lot in front of Hillsborough High School

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 12:02 pm
The Publix at the North Gate Shopping center – where Home Depot is now. That’s where you had to go to shop when our old 1930′s Deco Publix was torn down and rebuilt.

Anonymous says:
June 6, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Also North Gate when it had a JC Penneys!

Remember Sem Hi Center location was a thrift store…Salvation Army maybe?

Anonymous says:
June 7, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I remember when the OLD post office was an A&P supermarket. I remember, when I first moved to Seminole Heights, that most people did not lock their doors, we met in the street in the evenings to talk with neighbors. I remember the old Sears. I remember getting the sweetest well water from a house on Branch Ave. It cost a nickle a gallon-on the honor system. I remember when mail was addressed to Seminole Heights (although it had long ago been put under “Tampa”). I remember the only late night place to eat was the Rentz(?) dinner on Hillsborough Ave.

Randi

Maria says:
June 7, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Ah, Northgate Shopping Center.
In college I worked at Cloth World there, which was located right about where the Home Depot’s contractor pick-up section is located.

Anonymous says:
June 7, 2009 at 7:33 pm
better than it is today.
Question; why did it all disappear? Why didn’t you do more to preserve those icons? Or were you too busy buying low cost goods at Wal-Mart, or leave NorthGate to shop at the newer mall, only to leave it when International Mall opened.
People from Tampa are always talking about the past, why not focus on the present and how to make it better.

Anonymous says:
June 7, 2009 at 9:42 pm
There was also a Lerner’s at Northgate. During High School my girlfriend and I would try on outfits and place them on lay-away every Friday night after pay day. We’d cash out our checks at the Food World on the corner (before it was a Publix) for the cost of a quarter. Then we would walk over to the Grant’s dept store, sit at a booth and order an ice cream soda. All in the same Northgate shopping center. My sister also worked at Cloth World during high school. During 1970-1974.
Technically, this area isn’t Seminole Heights but ahhhhh, good times!

Anonymous says:
June 8, 2009 at 12:46 am (Edit)
When I first came to SH, I bought the old North Tampa Civic Center with it’s 50 windows and single room with stage. My neighbor did not even have a lock on her front door. She installed one about 10 years later.

Anonymous says:
June 8, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Tell me more about the water! I live at that house on Branch, and many people have told me about the water….but I don’t have a timeline…when did it stop?
Cara

Anonymous says:
June 9, 2009 at 3:09 pm
The old “carpet church” just north of MLK and Nebraska. They were the AFAB Carpet store by day and at night they would roll a speaker on the sidewalk and blare their church services throughout the neighborhood.

Anonymous says:
June 9, 2009 at 3:53 pm
This has been fun hearing all the old stories and the way things used to be.

Anonymous says:
June 9, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Does anyone remember Dusty Memories? That was a really cool old house on Nebraska Avenue that was home to an old junk store. The lady that ran it built lamps out of junk and rewired lamps. The building was demolished and an ugly metal building went up in its place. She moved over to 15th and Osborne and tried to keep it going it but I think the city shut her down.

Anonymous says:
June 9, 2009 at 6:31 pm
When my now 28 year old daughter was young I used to buy her clothes at the Polly Flinders Outlet store in Norgate shopping center. Really nice dresses for about $5.00 with all the smocking.

Susan Long

Anonymous says:
June 14, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I remember when there was a small Maas Brothers Department store in the Northgate Shopping Center.

Anonymous says:
June 15, 2009 at 1:23 am
#18 here, you’re right 25 there was a small Maas Bros Dept store at North Gate, I forgot the name of what we considered the higher class-more expensive type clothes. We would place our outfits on lay-a-way at Lerner’s then go into the Mass Bros to look around at their collection never purchasing anything because everything was beautiful but out of our league on the pocket book. We were very happy with the juniors dept at Lerner’s with the latest fashion (being still in High School).