Tampa City Councilman Maniscalco with the soon-to-be-renamed bridge behind him. Credit: Courtesy office of Councilman Maniscalco

Tampa City Councilman Guido Maniscalco believes that changing the name of the Laurel Street Bridge to Fortune Taylor Bridge is one way to emphasize and keep alive the history of African-Americans in Tampa.

In August the District 6 Councilman made the motion to make the name change in honor of Fortune Taylor, a freed slave woman who provided her land on the east bank of the Hillsborough River so the bridge that saved West Tampa could be built. In October, the council unanimously agreed to rename the bridge after Taylor, a trailblazer who is often overlooked in the annals of Tampa history.

Getting support for the measure from his colleagues wasn't hard at all.

Councilman Frank Reddick, whose seat represents parts of downtown and East Tampa, was an early supporter of the change. The bridge is located on the northern edge of Downtown Tampa, in Reddick's district.

Maniscalco was inspired by a comment he read on social media by Jeff Houck of the Columbia Restaurant Group suggesting that now that things are really coming up in downtown, why not rename the bridge?

"I thought, why not? My thought is to get council support, not to rename the street, but why not call it the Fortune Taylor Bridge?" the councilman says of his proposal. "I can't see the city objecting. All they have to do is replace the signs. It's minimal cost. I'm not asking to rename the street, which is complicated. Now that the fortunes of downtown Tampa have returned, why not?"

The 'street' to which Maniscalco is referring to is Laurel Street, which has connected to the bridge since the construction of the interstate in the late 1960s reconfigured the street grid in north downtown. Prior to that time, Fortune Street connected to the Fortune Taylor Bridge. But after the construction of the interstate and the subsequent re-configuration of downtown Tampa's streets, the bridge by extension became known as the Laurel Street Bridge.

Thus, a reminder of Taylor and her remarkable achievements was lost.

Fortune Taylor's achievements were incredibly uncommon for a black woman living through the tail end of slavery, then Reconstruction, then the Jim Crow Era. She managed to acquire 33 acres of land on the Hillsborough River after the Civil War — though no one is quite sure exactly how. Hugh Campbell McFarlane, an attorney considered to be the founder of West Tampa, made a deal with her to allow the city to build a bridge on her property connecting the Hillsborough River's east and west banks.

In a sense, rechristening the bridge would once again make the name Fortune Taylor synonymous with progress.

An aerial view of the bridge. Credit: Screen Grab, Google Maps

Presently, there are two Fortune Streets in Tampa. East Fortune Street runs between North Ashley and Morgan streets. West Fortune Street, meanwhile, curves around just south of the Barrymore Hotel — past the John Lennon statue — before jogging north and becoming Doyle Carlton.

Notably, it is the only street named for a woman in Downtown Tampa.

Then who is Laurel?

Laurel Street takes its name from the tree. MacFarlane named some of the streets in West Tampa for trees in this former independently incorporated city before it was annexed by Tampa in 1925.

"See, it's a tree,” Councilman Maniscalco declares. "It's not a person. Nobody's feelings are going to get hurt…People on the Riverwalk, now as they walk, they're going to see the name Fortune Taylor. There's a saying, and it goes: You die twice, once when you take your last breath and again when someone says your name for the last time. Having Fortune Taylor's name on that bridge, you keep the spirit alive."

One of Maniscalco's goals, he said, "is to preserve the African-American history of Tampa, or to do a better job at it."

He says there is currently not enough recognition of African Americans' important roles throughout Tampa's history.

"I have always said we should look to our past in order to build for our future," Maniscalco said. "By honoring Fortune Taylor, we do exactly that. She is a part of the Tampa story and should be remembered."

Councilmen Maniscalco and Reddick are among a number of Tampa citizens who feel that recognizing Taylor is the right thing to do. They join the ranks of historians Fred Hearns, E.J. Salcines, Doris Weatherford and Ersula Knox Odom, State Sen. Darryl Rouson (D-St. Petersburg); county and city officials, members of the business community, and private citizens. After Richard Gonzmart, president of the Columbia Restaurant Group, read about Fortune Taylor, he added a “Fortune Taylor Guava Pie” to the dessert menu at Columbia's Ulele Restaurant, inspired by the pies Taylor made using fruit that grew on her property, baked goods that helped constitute her business venture. Taylor and her late husband Benjamin were citrus farmers, among the first in the state of Florida.

"People care," Maniscalco said. "They care about Tampa. This [bridge recognition] just adds to it. It's our history…We're righting some wrongs and reinstating history. It's the right thing to do."

City officials say signage changes should take place over the next several weeks.

Rouson, meanwhile, is filing a bill ahead of the 2018 Florida legislative session to make the name change official at the state level, given that the bridge is part of a state road.

Kate Bradshaw contributed to this report.