Tampa Electric Company- 100 N Dale Mabry

Tampa Electric- 100 N Dale Mabry. Date unknown. Gandy Collection. Courtesy of the University of South Florida Digital Collection

Tampa Electric moved from its downtown location to this building at Kennedy (then known as Grand Central) and Dale Mabry in 1956.

The building featured a drive-thru window to facilitate convenience for customers' payments. It also had an auditorium it called Leisure House (which started downtown in the 1930s), where the company demonstrated the latest electric appliances for homemakers (they called home economists). They sponsored local advertisements, often in conjunction with the retailer Duncan Hines, featuring recipes to try in new electric ovens. They demonstrated “new” color TVs, lamps, heat pumps, and anything else they could to promote electricity use in your home. Tampa Electric did not sell appliances, but referred interested customers to retailers in the service area.

Tampa Electric sold the property to Freedom Savings and Loan in 1981 for $6.5 million, announcing plans to build a 10-story office tower, but ran into some expensive rezoning issues. In 1984, Orlando-based Morely Properties purchased the 9.3-acre property and began construction on the $125 million Tampa Commons Building. TECO moved back downtown to its new headquarters in the 700 block of Franklin St, where the O. Falks Department Store once stood.

Tampa Commons building. 1 N Dale Mabry 2025 © Chip Weiner

Tampa Electric- 100 N Dale Mabry. Date unknown. Gandy Collection. Courtesy of the University of South Florida Digital Collection

Tampa Electric Fountain at the corner of Kennedy and Dale Mabry, Date unknown. Gandy Collection. Courtesy of the University of South Florida Digital Collection

Tampa Electric company cars included Chebrolet Corvairs and For Falcons as see in the parking lot behind the building. Date unknown. Gandy Collection. Courtesy of the University of South Florida Digital Collection

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