Hillsborough High School
Last week I criticized Tampa for having too many parking garages and not putting enough emphasis on education. So it’s only fair to mention that there are a few extraordinarily beautiful schools in the area. Hillsborough High School may have existed as early as 1880, but the current Gothic building in the Seminole Heights neighborhood was built in 1927. There is a lot of history in this school – it produced the first high school newspaper and the first high school yearbook in the state of Florida. President Clinton spoke there in 1996. And it was the first high school in the United States to establish an alumni association.
The football field is named after Marcelino “Chelo” Huerta, a Hillsborough High graduate, football player at the University of Florida, and head football coach at several colleges.
In my opinion, the four most iconic structures in Tampa are The University of Tampa (old Tampa Bay Hotel), Hillsborough High School, old City Hall, and believe it or not, the Sulphur Springs water tower. The first three, being beautiful architectural landmarks of Tampa, and the third I consider to be the most unique and mystifying. Thankfully, the city has taken care to preserve them for us to enjoy today. I wish they would have had the same foresight back in the early 50s when they decided to demolish the old Hillsborough County Courthouse on Lafayette and Franklin St. Thanks for the HHS photos. I’m a Jefferson 1976 grad, but I never can get enough of seeing the HHS building.
September 16, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Amazingly, this is the 8th home of Hillsborough High School. It was designed by Francis Kennard, the same architect who designed the Floridan Hotel downtown. Mr. Kennard has many notable buildings to his credit in the southwest part of Florida, among which may be mentioned are the Belleview Hotel in Bellair, the Pinellas County Court House, Lee County Court House, Citizens’ Bank Building of Tampa, Citrus Exchange Building and many other important buildings. You can read more about him here: http://www.tampapix.com/HHS.htm
September 16, 2012 at 6:16 pm