Hyde Park History
It’s important for a community to preserve its buildings and structures but equally important is remembering the people who helped make the place a neighborhood. One of these people to whom the community owes a debt recently died. She was Jane Liggett, who moved to South Tampa in 1976 to renovate her house.
It wasn’t that long ago when you could walk through Hyde Park and still see dilapidated houses that made you wonder if they were still inhabited. Luckily, many of these homes were brought back from the brink by people who valued the past and could see the potential in the crumbling bones.
My neighbor Marie moved to Hyde Park in 1967 after her husband retired from the military. She loved traditional neighborhoods and wanted to live in a place that had sidewalks and bungalows. Her realtor though she was crazy, but took her to Hyde Park where she has lived ever since. If you really want to get to know Hyde Park sit down with someone like Marie and you will see the neighborhood come alive. She knows all about the residents who have come and gone, the big events and the constantly changing built environment.
With every passing generation it is inevitable that some history will vanish, but it’s important to save what we can. There are treasure troves of memories and experiences that will disappear without an effort to preserve them. It would be nice to have a program to collect the oral histories of our senior residents in Tampa.
