Two of Davis Islands first homes ever built hit the market
DAVIS ISLANDS, Fla. - One of the first homes ever built on Davis Islands is up for sale, months after a home originally owned by the man who developed Davis Islands also went on the market.
The house at 36 Columbia Drive, which has five bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms, is currently listed at $2.3 million. A USF study estimates it was likely built for about $10,000 in 1926.
Giovanny Cardenas, with Smith & Associates Real Estate, said the home retains much of its history, including parts of the living room, which is adorned with wooden beams across the ceiling that still have the original paint job.
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"The second they open the door, they're like, 'wow,'" said Cardenas, who gave FOX 13 a tour of the house on Thursday. "It has the versatility to be an entertainment home. It has a versatility to be a home for a family."
There are some newer additions, including renovations to the kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms, along with a newer pool.
"It has the tall ceilings, it has a tall transom windows. It has the long spaces that are very enjoyable for entertaining," Cardenas said. "Those are some of the, I think you can see was part of Tampa 100 years ago, and it's still part of Tampa today."
Earlier this year, a home that was originally owned by D.P. Davis also went on the market. Davis is the developer who dredged around a small set of Islands, turning them into the famous part of Tampa that bears his name.
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Rodney Kite Powell, a historian with the Tampa Bay History Center, said both homes were part of a land boom in Florida in the early 1920s.
"It was really an amazing development. It was billed as a $30 million development [that] had a nine-hole, par-three golf course, several luxury hotels and a lot of homes," Kite-Powell said. "[These homes] really do help tell the story of the island, the story of the land boom. From an architectural history, from a, kind of general social history. There's a lot wrapped up in those buildings."
Kite-Powell estimates between 20-40 of Davis Islands' original 100 homes have been demolished. He said, when that happens, the history goes with it.
"Hopefully we're able to preserve or protect or at least have people who want to preserve and protect these buildings, so they can live on for future generations," he said.
There's an open house for the home at 36 Columbia Drive. There's an open house both Saturday and Sunday from 11 to 2 p.m.
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