Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Downtown Tampa’s last rooming house, at 851 Zack St., provided rooms for Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Webb, Cab Calloway, James Brown, the Ink Spots, and other black musicians traveling through Tampa during the segregation era. They played in bars and nightclubs in the Central Avenue business district, a community created by blacks that thrived from 1900 to 1960. Years ago, Tampa bulldozed its entire black business district, also known as “the Scrub.” The Tampa City Council meets tomorrow to decide if the Jackson House as it’s known should be granted “local landmark” status. Of course this place should be. The current owners would like to open a museum there – another excellent idea. Hopefully, this will spur an effort to revitalize the entire Central Avenue business district. Schools, clinics, restaurants, nightclubs, a hotel, a movie theater and a hospital opened up along Central Avenue in the early to mid-1900s. Central Avenue was the birthplace of Moses White’s BBQ, and the Palace Drug Store was the weekend hangout for many young people. Entrepreneurs in the Scrub catered to black customers, who were denied services in much of Tampa during an era when racial segregation was routine. The entire district should be rebuilt – with it’s history in mind, and the Jackson House is a great place to start.

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