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Historic place

Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory

522 N Howard Ave, Tampa, FL

A New Deal armory in West Tampa where Elvis played at least four times in 1955 and 1956, now a Jewish Community Center.

📅 1941–2005🏛️ Music VenueRepurposed
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The story

The armory was built in the 1930s under the New Deal and dedicated the day after the Pearl Harbor attack. The Florida Army National Guard and Army Reserve used it until 2005. Over the years it also held graduations, weddings, wrestling matches and USF basketball games, and Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there. President John F. Kennedy addressed the Florida Chamber of Commerce there in 1963, four days before he was killed.

Elvis Presley first played it on May 8, 1955, as a late addition to Hank Snow's All-Star Jamboree, with $1 general admission and a sellout of close to 5,000. He returned on July 31, 1955, in February 1956, and on August 5, 1956, when about 10,000 fans came and an estimated 1,000 were turned away. After a decade of failed redevelopment plans, a $30 million renovation in 2016 turned it into the Bryan Glazer Family Jewish Community Center. It was listed on the National Register in 2013.

What's There Now

It is the Bryan Glazer Family Jewish Community Center, home to the Tampa Jewish Community Center & Federation.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

Wikipedia says the cover photo of Elvis's debut album came from the armory show.
Kennedy spoke there four days before his assassination.
It took about a decade to find a new occupant after the Guard left.

Nearby history

The Big Orange Drive-In

1301 W Kennedy Blvd · 1.2 km away
A 24-hour carhop drive-in nicknamed the Big Orange, known for its orange-pants uniforms, lost its liquor license in 1956

Valencia Garden

811 W Kennedy Blvd · 1.6 km away
Manuel Beiro's Spanish restaurant ran 82 years, survived a 1966 fire and closed when the University of Tampa bought the

Bern's Steak House

1208 S Howard Ave · 1.9 km away
Bern and Gert Laxer bought a bar called Beer Haven and reused the letters on its sign to spell out Bern's.

University of Tampa

401 W Kennedy Blvd · 2.0 km away
Tampa Bay Junior College moved into the closed hotel in August 1933 and grew into the University of Tampa.

Palladium Ballroom

205 W Cass St · 2.1 km away
A downtown dance hall that opened with a New Year's Eve party in 1957 and was gone by 1965, the year Curtis Hixon Hall o

Curtis Hixon Hall

600 Ashley Dr · 2.3 km away
Tampa's riverfront arena hosted Elvis, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead before it was torn down in 1993.

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Homer_W._Hesterly_Armory