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Wood-Frame Relic Becomes Arson Case

Tribune photo by SUSAN M. GREEN

This house along U.S. 301 near Rhodine Road would have been 100 years old in 2012 if it had not been destroyed by fire.

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By SUSAN M. GREEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 14, 2008

RIVERVIEW - A wood-frame house that burned last week would have been a century old if it could have stood another three or four years.

Hillsborough County Fire Rescue spokesman Ray Yeakley said fire trucks responded to a blaze at 12002 U.S. 301 about 8:30 p.m. June 3. Firefighters put out the flames fairly quickly but not before much of the house was destroyed.

Fire Rescue left the scene about 11:30 p.m., Yeakley said.

The house was unoccupied, and there were no injuries, he said. Investigators determined the fire was set deliberately and opened an arson case, Yeakley said. No other details were available Tuesday.

Jim Connell of Plant City, whose company Southern Hospitality owns the house and about 10 acres around it, said the home had been vacant for at least seven years.

Before that, the house was rented out, he said. The house had since been condemned by the county, he said.

He said his mother, Ruth Harvill of Riverview, took care of the former owner, Carmen Diez, before her death at age 95 in January 2003. The house was part of property willed to Harvill and later purchased by her son, but the estate remains in probate court, Connell said.

Because of the court case, he said, he does not know when the remainder of the house will be torn down.

County records show the house was put on the property tax rolls in 1912. The county property appraiser this year valued the 2,300-square-foot house and a mobile home on the lot at about $41,000. The market value of the land is listed at $275,000, though its taxable value was substantially reduced by a greenbelt designation.

Hillsborough County Clerk of Court records indicate that Ralph and Carmen Diez owned property in the vicinity as far back as 1965. Ralph Diez died in 1985. Efforts to trace the history of the house were unsuccessful.

Last year, through an eminent domain proceeding, the Florida Department of Transportation paid $8,200 for an easement to build a stormwater drain on part of the property, court records show. The project is part of the upcoming widening of U.S. 301 from two to six lanes.

To the south stretch the sprawling subdivisions of South Pointe and Panther Trace, but the acreage immediately surrounding the old house remains pasture and woods, with a few scattered mobile homes and buildings.

In the early 1900s, the house unquestionably would have been a rural abode, predating the state highway system. According to the Internet site www.us-highways.com, the original state highway through Riverview to Palmetto was dubbed U.S. 41. It was redesignated U.S. 301 in 1952.

The dirt road that passes the house's north side, on the west side of U.S. 301, is shown on many maps as a dead-end portion of Rhodine Road.

Despite its age, the house was not listed on the most recent survey of sites in unincorporated Hillsborough with potential to become historic landmarks. The survey was published in 1998, and sites had to be at least 50 years old at that time to merit consideration.

Elaine Lund, who assumed oversight of Hillsborough's historic preservation program in 2006, said the two-story structure was a "typical example of a wood-frame vernacular bungalow, common throughout Hillsborough County and this part of Florida."

Possibly the property was not deemed worthy of consideration because the architectural style was common in the early 1900s, she said.

The Hillsborough County Historic Resources Review Board applied for a state grant last year to update the survey, focusing on the area south of the Alafia River, but did not receive enough funding to pursue the effort.

DO YOU REMEMBER?

Attention, longtime Riverview residents. Do you know something about this house? About the Riverview area near U.S. 301 and Rhodine Road in the early 20th century?

Call Susan Green at (813) 865-1566 or e-mail sgreen@tampatrib.com.

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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