In 1911, Capt. HG Warner constructed the Franklin Square office building at the northeast corner of Franklin and Whiting Streets. The $30,000 3-story building was constructed to house the Joe B. Johnson Buick dealership and other businesses. Johnson, who had been selling Buicks since 1907, opened this dealership in 1912, with his name emblazoned on the cupola in the photograph by the Burgert Brothers. He proudly boasted that the showroom on the 1st floor could house 100 cars in its 60 x 150’ walls. The front of the building had a mosaic tile floor and 2 large plate-glass windows facing Franklin Street. It was finished with hardwood and lit with tungsten lamps. Offices housed staff and a bookkeeper. A twenty-man repair shop was located in the rear. He began calling himself Joe B(uick) Johnson in advertisements. Other businesses whose names can be seen on the windows in the photo are W.R. Biggers, Phillip Shore Shipping Agency (there’s a school named after him in Ybor City), Hillsborough River Land Co., and A.O. & G. Railway Co. In 1929, it lost its moniker as the Franklin Square Office Building.

The dealership was sold in 1942 and renamed Giles Motor Co. In 1956, J.C. “Jack” Faircloth, hailing from Delray Beach, bought the business and, in 1967, moved it to the corner of Dale Mary Highway and Buffalo Ave (now Martin Luther King Blvd.) The Music Mart moved in that same year.

In the late 1970s, the building sat empty until it was demolished and replaced by the $10 million Fort Brooke Parking Garage.

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved