Ambrose Bros. Fruit Market operated at 1401–1403 N. Franklin Street beginning around 1929. The business was founded by Italian immigrant Nicholas Ambrose, who ran the neighborhood fruit stand until his death in 1950. Afterward, the shop continued under the management of Andrew Ambrose and his wife, Louise C., who lived nearby at 306 E. Constant Street.

By the mid-20th century, the North Franklin Street corridor had fallen on hard times and was widely known as Tampa’s Skid Row, making it increasingly difficult for small family businesses to survive. Large portions of the area were targeted for urban renewal, a key element of Mayor Bill Poe’s 1975 re-election campaign. Much of the surrounding block—including the Ambrose building—was likely demolished around 1976.

The neighborhood had already been disrupted years earlier. In the late 1960s, the construction of Interstate 75 (now I-275) carved through the area just north of the market, accelerating the district's decline.

The neighborhood further changed in the early 1970s as the Franklin Street Mall was constructed closer to the downtown core, and all of Franklin Street south of the interstate was converted into a curvy, narrow brick-covered roadway.

Andrew Ambrose continued on long after the store was gone, passing away in 1996, leaving behind another small but telling chapter in Tampa’s immigrant and neighborhood business history.

The property is now used as a private parking lot for the Licensing section of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Division – Alcohol and Tobacco.

© Chip Weiner. All rights reserved