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Historic place

Busch Gardens Tampa (original 1959 Bird Gardens)

10165 N McKinley Dr, Tampa, FL

Busch Gardens began in 1959 as a free hospitality garden for a brewery, with flamingos, a 200-seat bird show and free beer.

📅 1959–present🏛️ ParkStill here
Open on the mapSlide back to 1959

The story

Anheuser-Busch bought a 160-acre plot in 1957 for $320,000 and dedicated its new Tampa brewery on March 31, 1959, with about 2,000 people attending. The park opened to the public on June 1, 1959, free. Visitors toured the brewery, took free beer samples at the Hospitality House, and walked tropical gardens and the original Bird Gardens. About 1,600 guests came on opening day.

The gardens covered about 15 acres and cost roughly $500,000, with lagoons, about 36,000 flowering plants and 300 trees. Attractions included a 200-seat bird show amphitheater, a flamingo sanctuary, and an animal area called Devil's Island. William B. Harvard designed the Hospitality House. By August 1960 attendance had passed 1,000,000, and in 1964 the company bought about 25 more acres. Free beer samples ended in 2009 and returned in 2018.

What's There Now

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, a large theme park, occupies the site.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

Attendance neared 250,000 by the end of October 1959.
The park and brewery closed July 25 to August 2, 1960, for a labor strike.
The Hospitality House later became the Garden Gate Cafe.

Nearby history

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A Chicago musician touring Florida in a hollowed-out school bus couldn't find a hot dog in Tampa, so he opened a stand i

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A one-screen drive-in beside the tower, opened October 22, 1952, closed in 1984 and leveled in 1985.

Lowry Park Zoo and Tampa Fairyland

1101 W Sligh Ave · 6.0 km away
A zoo ringed with concrete nursery-rhyme statues opened in 1957, then was rebuilt in 1988 with almost nothing of the old

J.C. Newman Cigar Company

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J.C. Newman reopened the closed factory in 1954 and still makes cigars there.

Columbia Restaurant

2117 E 7th Ave · 9.3 km away
A 1905 cafe for cigar workers grew into a restaurant that fills an entire Ybor City block and is still run by the foundi

Circulo Cubano de Tampa (Cuban Club)

2010 N Avenida Republica de Cuba · 9.3 km away
After a 1916 fire destroyed the first clubhouse, Cuban cigar workers built a four-story one with a theater, ballroom and

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busch_Gardens_Tampa_Bay