Hamner Tower, Tampa

I grew up near Hamner Tower Park. It is located at the corner of Fletcher Avenue and North Boulevard in Tampa, Florida. All I ever knew about this tower is that it was "historic" and had therefore been saved from demolition.

The tower itself is also known as "Hamner Fire Tower."

According to other websites (The Suncoast Free-Net and Hillsboroughcounty.org), Hamner Fire Tower was built in 1937, and the site was acquired by the Hillsborough County parks system in 1993. I don't know this as fact, but I believe that the park and nearby Hamner Avenue are named for a Burt L. Hamner, a real estate developer and owner of B.L. Hamner Realty during the 1920s and beyond.

When I was a kid we all thought this tower was pretty ugly, and the fact that it was preserved at all was kind of a joke.

I returned home to Tampa recently and was surprised to find that I now see Hamner Tower differently. I look at it as something other than a neighborhood curiosity. With its noisy appearance and the stark figure it cuts against the sky, I see this tower as something abstract and even expressive.

I don't remember talking to anyone who knew any interesting stories about this place, but if you are reading this and found this web page then maybe you know something about it? contact me if you do.

Though not specific to Hamner Park, I noticed that someone was posting poems on the lightposts along North Boulevard and Fletcher Avenue. The subject matter of these poems appeared to be religious in nature, and I think the author's name is A. Risner. It was so hard to read the author's signature that I could be completely wrong about this. The poems bore titles like "LET US BEAR SOME WEIGHT!" and "THE ONE CONNECT." I don't know anything about the author of these poems. Do you?