MUSEUM & CULTURE
Tampa Bay History Center
Hillsborough County · Gulf Coast
A three-floor museum on the downtown waterfront covering twelve thousand years of life around Tampa Bay, and a Smithsonian Affiliate.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Tampa businessman J. Thomas Touchton and a group of civic leaders began the effort in 1989, and after a long campaign the permanent building opened on January 17, 2009, at 801 Water Street, on the edge of Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park beside the Garrison Channel. The building runs about 60,000 square feet with 25,000 square feet of galleries across three floors, and it was renamed the J. Thomas Touchton Tampa Bay History Center Building in October 2009. The exhibits move from the first people of the region through Spanish arrival, cattle ranching, the Seminole wars, the cigar industry, citrus and the growth of the modern city. A gallery on pirates covers both real coastal raiding and the invented Gasparilla legend the city celebrates every year. The Touchton Map Library on the third floor holds thousands of maps, charts and documents spanning five centuries, and it is the only cartographic center of its kind in the southeastern United States. The center became a Smithsonian Affiliate in 2012 and was accredited by the American Alliance of Museums in 2015. The Columbia Cafe on the ground floor is run by the Ybor City restaurant of the same name
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