Worthingston’s Bakery and Allen Hotel, located at 214 Tyler Street, are emblematic of how businesses structured their mixed-use buildings in the 1920s. Retail businesses were on the ground floor, and residential space was on the top. It’s hard to see, but there’s also a barbershop next to the bakery here offering shaves for 15¢. By 1925, Worthingston’s had closed. Long-time Tampa residents, especially musicians, will remember this building as Cutro’s Music, which opened in the early 1960s and closed in the mid-1990s.  In 2009, attorney Malka Isaak bought the building to hold, waiting for a neighborhood renaissance.

In 2019, Isaak partnered up with Green Iguana owner Rick Calderoni to open a more affordable café for locals. They wanted to lease part of Herman Massey Park next door from the city for a patio. However, city planners were just about to wrap up a $100,000, two-year plan to redesign the adjoining park, turning it into a needed dog park. Isaak’s team objected, asserting that dog droppings beside people eating don’t mix. She won the battle, but the café never opened. Today, it sits boarded up with vestiges of Cutro’s Music still on the window, along with graffiti.

In 2025, Herman Massey Park is under a $1.7 million renovation. The long-awaited renaissance of the neighborhood began around 2020 on nearby Franklin St., but the exterior of this building continued to degrade. Peeking through the partially shaded windows, it is evident that the roof has collapsed. In May 2025, the building was condemned by the city. A permit for its demolition was granted on September 9, 2025

 © Chip Weiner. All rights reserved