THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE NAMES
Al Lang Field Al Lang was a mayor of St.
Petersburg who was instrumental in bringing
spring training baseball to Florida in 1914. Al
Lang thought baseball would boost tourism,
so, he traveled the country selling Florida
and the sport. Al Lang Stadium/Field: 1st
Street South, Downtown St. Petersburg.
Courtney Campbell Causeway After
World War II, Courtney Campbell was the
Tampa district member of the State Road
Department. He had great responsibility
for aesthetic improvements to the Davis
Causeway, which was renamed in Campbell’s
honor. The Causeway is the section of
Route 60 between Tampa Int’l Airport and
Clearwater.
Egmont Key (below Ft. DeSoto Park): John
Perceval, Second Earl of Egmont was a
member of the Irish House of Commons and
honored by the British during their occupancy
of Florida (1763-1783) with the naming of
Egmont Key off the southern tip of Pinellas
County.
Gandy Bridge George S. Gandy, a
Philadelphia native, was a primary builder
of modern Tampa. He fi rst conceived the
idea of a bridge across Tampa Bay in 1902;
construction began in 1922 and the bridge
opened in 1924.
Howard Frankland Bridge William Howard
Frankland was known as “Mr. Tampa” for
most of his life. In 1925, he came to Tampa
from Tennessee and founded the Pioneer
Tire Co. As a member of the State Road
Board, he championed for a new bridge
between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.
“Frankland’s Folly” opened offi cially as
the Howard Frankland Bridge on January
15, 1960. It was referred to as the “Howard
Frankenstein” bridge and when the new span
opened in late 1991, it was called the “Bride
of Frankenstein”.
J. Albert Whitted Airport J. Albert
Whitted was one of the fi rst of 250 fl iers in
the U.S. Navy. He attended public school in
St. Petersburg and opened a cycle shop in
the city. He and four passengers were killed
in a 1923 plane crash near Pensacola, Florida.
Airport: 8th Ave. South, Downtown St.
Petersburg.
Jannus Live (Downtown St. Petersburg)
Tony Jannus, tested parachutes, set altitude
records and piloted an airboat. He fl ew the
world’s fi rst scheduled passenger service
airline called the ‘Benoist’, between St.
Petersburg and Tampa on January 1, 1914.
Jannus Live is an outdoor music venue: 200 1st
Ave. N., Downtown St. Petersburg.
John’s Pass (Madeira Beach) John Levick,
aka Juan Levique, and Joe Silva were Spanish
fi shermen and Boca Ciega squatters. They
were en route to New Orleans when, on
September 25, 1848, a hurricane roared
through Pinellas County. Returning a month
later, the friends navigated Boca Ciega
Bay through a new pass cut by the storm –
named John’s Pass in honor of this discovery.
Zoo Tampa at Lowry Park Sumter DeLeon
Lowry was a city commissioner in Tampa
in the 1920’s. He spearheaded the eff ort to
designate a 110 acre area for a city park. Zoo
Tampa at Lowry Park: off Sligh Ave. in Tampa.
MacDill Air Force Base Colonel Leslie MacDill
was the fi rst candidate to fi le application
papers to join the U.S. Army’s fl ying corps in
1914. The World War I veteran was a member
of the War Department’s general staff when
in 1938, at age 49, MacDill was killed in an
airplane crash near Washington D.C. MacDill
Army Air Base was activated on April 16, 1941,
in Tampa.
Oldsmar Ransom E. Olds, builder of the
Oldsmobile automobile, was the initial
developer of the town of Oldsmar. He traded
a Daytona Beach apartment complex (valued
at $125,000), plus $200,000 cash and
$75,000 in bonds to one Richard Peters for
37,541 acres of land on Old Tampa Bay. The
town was originally founded as R.E. Olds-On-
The-Bay.
Plant Museum Henry B. Plant was the
magnate who brought the fi rst railroad
to Tampa and built the Tampa Bay Hotel
adorned with Moorish style minarets. The
hotel is part of the University of Tampa, with
a portion devoted as a museum to Henry
Plant. The university/museum is: on Kennedy
Blvd. (Route 60), Tampa.
Ybor City Don Vicente Martinez Ybor was a
Havana-born cigar manufacturer who ran his
empire from Key West. In 1885, having closed
his New York factory due to labor strikes, he
came to Tampa looking for a site to relocate.
On April 1, 1886, a fi re in Key West destroyed
his factory. Don Vicente made his move to
Tampa and organized Ybor City.
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