PLANT CITY
(Hillsborough County)

The center of Eastern Hillsborough County and famous as "the Strawberry Capital of the United States", Plant City is a town of a proud history. As early as 1839 there was a pine log blockhouse called Fort Hichipucksassa (Fort Sullivan) in the area. In 1849 settlers started Ickepuckesassa (Cork)post office.

The first town plat was started in 1843 by A. M. Randolph and one of the first area residents was Stephen Hollingsworth, whose daughter Catherine (1843) was the first child born in area and whose grandson Joshua was first President of Florida Southern College. Other founders were Rev. Samuel Knight, son-in-law of cattle baron Jacob Sumerlin, and John G. Thomas.

SELECTED HISTORIC SITES:

E. T. ROUX HOUSE (1900), off Calhoun Street, was built by one of the first developers of a lumbercamp in the area. The Fernandina native's father Albert Roux had built the first lumber camp in Florida (1839). The two-story house has a Greek Revival style with seven pedimented doorways and a Palladian window. Chester Carlton designed the structure which was featured for years in local publications.

LEW J. PROSSER HOUSE (1900), 202 West Calhoun Street, is the Victorian Revival home of a successful citrus grower and owner of the R. W. Burch Company.

D. M. GRIFFIN HOUSE (206 West Calhoun (1905), was the Victorian residence of one of the first dentists in Plant City.

OSCAR STRICKLAND HOUSE (1897) 106 East Herring Street, is a two-story Queen Anne house with some Colonial Revival elements. Brother Thomas Strickland, a businessman and School Board member, lived in the house during most of its first half-century.

LEE BUILDING, (1922) 110 Reynolds Street, was a two-story brick commercial structure with a plain, wide entablature below the cornice. In 1987 the 19,2000 square-foot structure, largest of Plant City's older buildings, was restored and modernized.


HILLSBORO STATE BANK (1914), 202 West Reynolds Street, is one of the oldest commercial buildings in downtown, used until 1966.

HOOKERS STORE (1904). 102 North Collins Street, was at the center of the business district and housed the S.C. Wells Drug Store with Judge G. B. Wells offices on the secodn floor.

PLANT CITY UNION DEPOT (1909) ,on East North Drane Street, symbolized the development of the community was a reflection of the arrival in December of 1883 of the South Florida Railroad to a village then called Hichipuckassa.. The connection of the railroad to the North by Henry Plant's South Florida Railroad in 1885 convinced city fathers to name the village after Plant. At one time six tracks and 44 daily passenger trains crossed Plant City making it a major agricultural-transportation center.

PLANT CITY PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH (1924), 509 North Evers Street, is a two corner towerd frame church of one of the city's older congregations.



DR. J. W. ALSOBROOK HOUSE (1907), 508 Whitehall Street, was on North Evers, and is a large Victorian structure.