Trust me, it’s not.
Of all that space, the rotating exhibits — most recently, A History of Conservation: A Bird’s Eye View, but also Golden Legacy: Original Art from 65 Years of Golden Books, Patios, Pools, and the Invention of the American Backyard and Finding Fairyland — get only a part of the second floor. Now, I’m not suggesting our maritime history isn’t vital to understanding who we are as a community (it is) or that the Seminole exhibit isn’t crucial in understanding Florida’s fiercest people (so much so it, too, needs more room) or that the Touchton Map Library should surrender an inch of its space (it shouldn’t).
But I am saying that, even if you weren’t in awe of Audubon, charmed by the Golden Books, besotted by backyards or freaked out by Fairyland, when you wander through the Wayne Thomas Gallery to drink in Tampa Bay’s brewing history, you’re going to agree that our history needs more (bent) elbow room.
Rodney Kite-Powell, curator of history, let CL take a sneak peek of History by the Pint: Beer and Brewing in Tampa Bay, and, reader, I gotta tell ya: This is not an exhibit about brewing beer. It’s an exhibit about Tampa Bay and its place in the world.
Start with the oldest beer bottle known to Tampa Bay — an 1860s crock whose heft makes you (erroneously) think our soldiers had bigger brews — and keep going until you taste samples from breweries in business today (call for sampling times.) It’s not a bad way to spend an afternoon, to be sure, but it turns out beer’s a larger part of our history than you might think.
The first brewery in Tampa Bay (that crock of beer was an import, by which we mean “not from Florida,” not that the soldiers at Fort Brooke were getting Carlsberg shipped in) is tied to — what else? — Ybor. Which means, of course, our beer history is also part Cuban history. Vincente Martinez-Ybor, Tampa fans know, came from Cuba when Spain’s tariffs on things made in Cuba soared. Also, he was escaping arrest for helping Cuban rebels plot the Cuban War of Independence. After a 17-year pit stop in Key West, he brought his cigar factory to Ybor City. That’s 1886; right before he died a decade later, he opened the Florida Brewing Company in Ybor, at or near the site of a freshwater spring. The brewery’s then-impressive six stories (now the home of Swope Rodante law firm) allowed for a gravity feed system as part of the brewing process and, until Tampa built its city hall in 1915, was the tallest building in Tampa.
That spring — discovered in 1824 and named Government Spring — has since vanished (early Euro-Floridians and, some would argue, modern-day Floridians, weren’t exactly best at managing natural resources), as has the Florida Brewing Company. But the history remains, all the more reason to check out this exhibit. Because we didn’t stop with Florida Brewing Company; Tampa Bay’s beer culture only grew from there.
Take, for example, Prohibition (I mean, don’t take it literally, because what fun would that be?): Most of the United States saw this dark, dry time in our history ushered in with the Volstead Act in 1919, but Florida — ever ahead of the curve — elected a Prohibition ticket governor in 1916 (Park Trammell). Earlier than that, the Florida State Archives have records of infamous “saloon smasher” Carry Nation touring the Sunshine State.
Now, you might see that as a bad thing, but think about it: Having a head start on Prohibition gave us a head start on something else, too: bootlegging. And that’s where the fun begins. There’s more — lots more —but, like the History Center, the things we’re excited about barely fit in the space we have. You’re gonna have to go there to get the rest of the story.
Meanwhile, let’s raise a glass to history. Salud!
History by the Pint: Beer and Brewing in Tampa Bay | Tampa Bay History Center, 801 Old Water St., Tampa | Mar. 2-Aug. 11; members opening Mar. 1 | $14.95; $12.95, 60 and up | 813-228-0097 | tampabayhistorycenter.org.
This article appears in Feb 21-28, 2019.