Temple Terrace, one of only three incorporated municipalities in Hillsborough County, has a new history book in print titled Images of America: Temple Terrace by Arcadia Publishing, 2010.

The three co-authors of the book, Lana Burroughs, Tim Lancaster, and Creative Loafing contributor Grant Rimbey (all board members of the Temple Terrace Preservation Society) trace the history of this small but vibrant community, population 23,000, from its early days when it was the abode of Native Americans known as the Tocobaga, through 1757 when Spanish explorer Don Francisco Maria Celi ventured up the Hillsborough River seeking longleaf pine to use as masts for his ships. 1910 was when the famous Chicago socialite and land baroness (and Sarasota founder) Bertha Palmer bought 19,000 acres in the area and named it “Riverhills”, an exclusive hunting and game preserve for the wealthy elite.

The book also details the period of the town’s zenith, The Roaring Twenties, when Temple Terrace had the largest citrus grove in the world (all Temple oranges, of course), millions of dollars of property was sold in one day, and the town was the playground for famous sports celebrities like Red Grange, Babe Ruth, Helen Wainwright, Long Jim Barnes, and Walter Hagen, and performers like Al Jolson, Paul Whiteman, and the French chanteuse Jeannette LaForest.

This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.