A historic Mediterranean Rival home on Davis Islands that was built for a prominent Tampa Bay developer during the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s is now on the market.
Located at 200 Corsica St., the home was originally built in late 1928 by and for Frederick Mayes, a local independent builder and architect who was responsible for quite a few of the larger Spanish-style estates in the area around this time.
"He did a lot of work during the land boom so he (and the home, by extension) are not insignificant," said Tampa Bay History Center Director Rodney Kite-Powell in an email to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.
The home, which was added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1989, has had a few owners over the years, but besides Mayes, the most notable is arguably the late advertising mogul Louis Benito.
Benito, who passed away in 1993, founded the Louis Benito Advertising company and is the namesake of Benito Middle School in Tampa. At its peak, his company's list of clients included McDonald's, Paramount Pictures, General Telephone of Florida and the Pinellas County Tourist Development Council.
Benito was also named Tampa's Citizen of the Year in 1980 and he was co-chairman of the Tampa Super Bowl XVIII Host Committee in 1983.
Benito and his family owned the three-story home on Corsica St. for decades until it was sold in 1997 for $480,000, according to property records. Today, you can still see a large letter "B" above the fireplace in the living room.
The 5,998-square-foot home sits on a massive 14,700 square-foot. corner lot, and is being sold "as is." The home comes with a total of five bedrooms and four bathrooms, as well as a breakfast room, a library, a game room, two fire places, a sunken tiled tub, and more, says the listing.
The Mayes/Benito house is currently asking $3.2 million, and the listing agent is Paula Warren of Charles Rutenberg, Inc.
