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Nick Churton of Smith & Associates’ London office discovers the story behind one of Tampa’s most celebrated residential areas and a house that is pick of the bunch.

Broker: Smith & Associates

Agent: B-G Holmberg

In the early 1920s Tampa native, D P Davis, a developer who had prospered in the Miami property boom, masterminded the conversion of mudflats and three small islands near the mouth of the Hillsborough River in Tampa. His vision was an idyllic island community to be called Davis Islands. He hired the four largest dredgers available and ran them 24 hours a day in order to remove from the bay the 89 million cubic feet of sand necessary to realise his dream. It was a big dream.

When the sales office doors were opened on the day the island home plots went on sale there was pandemonium. Prospective buyers had waited in long queues and the streets near the sales office were congested with traffic. Within the first three hours, all 306 of the first phase plots were sold. Mr. Davis had been showered with checks and entered the record books for sales in a new subdivision.

Now, nearly one hundred years later, things maybe a little calmer on Davis Islands. But the homes are just as popular. D P Davis’s dream has become a reality and the islands have fulfilled their early promise by becoming one of Tampa’s most exclusive and sought after residential areas. Now the estate is so well regarded it is listed on the National Historic Registry.

A perfect example of why these homes are so popular is in Bosphorous Avenue. Back in 1926 number 190 was one of the first homes to be built on the Islands, Now known as Washington House the gated property occupies a fine double corner plot and is one of the most pleasing and distinctive homes on the Islands. That distinction continues inside. The house has been beautifully maintained but also refurbished into a modern and elegant home that has lost none of its innate character.

It would be impossible to argue that D P Davis’s vision was not bang on the money back in the 1920s. Close to Tampa’s top amenities this area has it all for those that want style with convenience – which makes it bang on the money today too.

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