The story
Troops established Cantonment Brooke on January 10, 1824, at the mouth of the Hillsborough River, and renamed it Fort Brooke that year. It was built to monitor the Seminoles, who had been confined inland under the Treaty of Moultrie Creek, and to act as a trading post. The village of Tampa grew just north of it. The post was headquarters and port during the Second Seminole War, and Union forces captured it on May 6, 1864. The Army held its last roll call in 1882 and decommissioned it in 1883.
The site was marked by a large hickory tree on an ancient mound, likely built by the Tocobaga culture, and Brooke ordered several old live oaks spared for shade. The land later went to industrial and commercial use until the late 1980s. Builders found unmapped Army and Seminole cemeteries. The Tampa Convention Center opened on the site in October 1990.
What's There Now
The Tampa Convention Center, with Benchmark International Arena and part of the Riverwalk across the old reserve.
Everything that was here
- 1824–1883
Fort Brooke (site, now Tampa Convention Center)Other
Tampa's founding Army post watched the Seminoles from 1824 until 1883; most of it stood where the convention center is now.
See the map in 1825 →
Did you know?
Nearby history
Tampa Tribune Building (Parker Street plant)
Tampa City Hall (1915)
Tampa Tribune Building (Lafayette Street)
Hillsboro Hotel
Wallace Stovall Tampa Tribune Building (GTE Building)
Curtis Hixon Hall
Know something about Fort Brooke (site, now Tampa Convention Center)? An old photo, a date, a memory of what stood here before?
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