TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Treasures, Steeped In History

ADVERTISEMENT

By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

Updated: 01/07/2008 09:22 pm

ALAFIA - Some three miles south of State Road 60, along what used to be known as the Plant City-Picnic Road, history slumbers in the remnants of a community born amid Florida's Seminole Wars.

Quaint farmhouses constructed near the turn of the 20th century dot the landscape not far from where a historical mid-19th century fort once stood. Fort Alafia is long gone, as is the bronze marker that commemorated its location, a little more than 100 yards east of County Road 39.

Here, too, where soldiers once marched and Indians tread, rose a monument to the horseless carriage of later years: a gas station constructed in 1926 by John Pierce Lewis.

Part residence, part garage and service station, the property remained in the hands of the Lewis family for 76 years. This summer, the gas station found new life as an official landmark called the Ft. Alafia Country Store.

"A lot of people come in here and ask the history. Some add a little bit, and that's always nice," said Bette Harvey, who purchased the property from friend and neighbor Steve Spangenberg in 2004 and sought its designation as a historical landmark.

Two stone lions and a 200-year-old iron gate from a French farmhouse guard the vintage structure, which also sports a low wall constructed of Victorian blocks that match the original pillars Lewis made long ago.

"My daddy did every bit of it right by hand. He had his own block mold and a cement mixer," said Harold Lewis, who was born in 1929 in the living quarters of the gas station where John and Virda Lewis raised two sons and a daughter.

Today, a drop ceiling crafted from bolts of burlap lends a rustic touch to an interior brimming with antique furniture and tools, Western memorabilia, folk art and an eclectic collection of Americana.

Some are Southwestern-style favorites from Harvey's previous business in Brandon, Rustic Ranch Furniture: steer skulls, a deerskin and ermine Sioux ceremonial dress and a chandelier made of tepees.

There also is an antique cornmeal grinder, a silver-studded parade saddle and a pair of tiered ceramic power pole insulators that stand more than a foot high.

"You can always find something unique here," Harvey said.

Prices run the gamut from exquisite, such as $4,800 for a full-bodied antique rooster weathervane, to whimsical, inexpensive old toys, rusted license plates and oversized chandelier prisms for $1 apiece.

Outside, the yard is filled with claw-foot tubs, windows, gates, doors, antique street bricks, pillars and blocks Spangenberg salvaged from homes that are about to be demolished.

"It's amazing what goes in the landfill. This is our history," said Harvey, her eyes sweeping the treasures rescued from the wrecking ball.

Passers-by are drawn by the array of tubs, sinks, fireplace mantels and doors that spill over into the yard.

"Most of my customers go down C.R. 39 a lot. They'll come in and say, "I've been meaning to come in here," Harvey said.

Couples are a big part of her business.

"I think most men who come in with their wives are pleasantly surprised," she said.

Many are delighted to discover Harvey's backyard "rummage shed" filled with odds and ends that inspire a walk down memory lane.

"Their eyes light up when they see tools that their grandpa used," she said.

The shed contains old mule tack, lighting fixtures, an assortment of solid wood doors and a collection of ornate claw feet from vintage tubs - no two alike.

Harvey likes to imagine creative uses for what otherwise might have been discarded.

The disembodied claw feet, for instance, might make interesting shelf brackets; the tiered ceramic insulators are potential fountains, she said. Or, perhaps, industrial-sized chip and dip platters.

Ronald Stevens, who runs a family hardware store down the road from the old gas station, grew up in the area and knew the station as the Lewis residence, one of several old houses in the neighborhood.

"It really didn't mean anything to me at the time. But now I look back at it and know there's a lot of history," he said.

Stevens said he especially misses the plaque that once stood in front of the old gas station that paid tribute to the fort that once stood behind it.

The historical sign read: "Site of Ft. Alafia Indian War Stockade built 1849. Community and post office est. 1855."

The heavy bronze plaque was stolen several years ago, then mysteriously reappeared in a local yard a few years later.

Authorities called upon Shelby Bender, director of the East Hillsborough Historical Society, to identify it. Where it had been was anyone's guess, she said.

"I had gotten down through the grapevine that it had been for sale at some big antique show in Pennsylvania," Bender said.

The county is expected to install it in front of the gas station again. Until then, it remains at the historical society's headquarters at the 1914 Plant City High School and Community Center.

Harold Lewis said it's "kind of unique" to have grown up in a place so steeped in history. At the time, though, it was simply a place where a boy could haunt the woods and fields and discover the occasional relic - a piece of wood from an old fort door, a rusty hinge or two.

Gas rationing during World War II closed the pumps in 1942, Lewis said.

"For a while, we sold candy and cold drinks, some tobacco," he said.

At some point after the war, the 700-square-foot interior was converted to living quarters. After John Lewis died in 1973, Virda continued to live there until 1995. She died two years later.

The property has changed hands three times since the Lewis heirs sold it in 1999. In 2005, Harvey secured its designation as a county landmark.

"It took almost a year," she said.

In April, following two major auctions to clear out old merchandise and a five-state buying trip to secure new treasures and curiosities, Harvey opened the doors to the public.

She immerses herself in the history of the place and of the items that surround her. And sometimes, on special occasions, the dirt road beside the old gas station yields pieces of the past.

"I still find pieces of 1920s vehicles, a Civil War spoon. After the rain, they just wash up."

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Ft. Alafia Country Store

WHERE: 8102 S. County Road 39, 3 miles south of State Road 60

WHEN: Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, weekdays by appointment

CONTACT: Bette Harvey, (813) 892-2469

Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813)865-4436 or jhollingsworth@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT