Davis Acquires Land (and water) for Davis Islands
by Rodney Kite-Powell
Curator, Tampa Bay History Center

In the early days of 1924, David P. Davis began the lengthy task of
assembling property for his Davis Islands development. The first step
centered on land acquisition and a contract with the city of Tampa that
would sell him Little Grassy Island plus its share in Big Grassy Island. He
also needed to receive permission to fill in the surrounding submerged lands.
Negotiations between Davis, represented by attorney Giddings Mabry,
and the city were surprisingly public, with the Tampa Morning Tribune
covering their progress on an almost daily basis. Though Davis and the city
quickly came to terms, some public opposition did exist. A small, but
wealthy and influential group of residents who lived on or near Bayshore
Boulevard objected to Davis’ plans because it would be detrimental to their
view of Hillsborough Bay.
These residents, led by Dr. Louis A. Bize, president of Citizens Bank
and Trust, outlined their problems in a letter sent to Tampa City
Commissioners on February 12, 1924. The Bayshore residents’ view
corridor was not their only concern. Their letter outlined six points of
“protest” to the city commission. The first four stated that the city had no
right under Florida law to sell the riparian (under water) rights to Davis, or
any other developer, for the purpose of filling in. The fifth point served as
an appeal to the environmentalists on the commission (there were none),
explaining that the development “would be a spoilation of a great portion of
Hillsboro [sic] Bay, the greatest natural attraction in the vicinity of said
city.” They ended with a general attack on the contract itself, which Bize
and his neighbors saw as “vague, uncertain, indefinite, and fails to provide
limitations against additional encroachments upon the lands held in trust by
the City of Tampa and the State of Florida.”
Though submitted by eight people, the neighborhood contingent kept
their protest to one page. In contrast, Karl Whitaker, a powerful local
lawyer and future city attorney, wrote a twelve page screed, attacking the
proposed contract point by point. Whitaker began by explaining he did not
“care at this time to enter into a discussion as to the merits or demerits of the
so called Davis Development Project.” Whitaker then outlined what he
would like to see happen to Little Grassy Islands – a park similar to one in
Miami’s Biscayne Bay.
His comments then ranged from the legalities and limits of the project
to the wording of certain parts of the contract to the size and dimensions of
planned city park space to the small number of limitations placed on Davis
and his development. While the city did adopt some of Whitaker’s
suggestions in this regard, such as the prohibition of “railroad terminals,”
they did not include a covenant restricting “persons of African descent” from
buying property within the Davis Islands neighborhood. The appearance of
such a covenant would not have been unusual, as there were other
developments in Tampa and around the country that included them, but it
was not expressly detailed in the final contract.
While wrangling with the city and citizenship over his proposed
contract and development, Davis also went about the task of purchasing the
non-public portions of Big Grassy Island from the estates of the Brown,
Henderson and Whitaker families. Davis and his attorney negotiated the
purchase of the Brown and Henderson portion of Big Grassy Island for
$100,000, or $1433.69 an acre. He was not as fortunate in his dealing with
the Whitaker Estate, of which Karl Whitaker was an important part. Davis
finally purchased the six and one third acres of Big Grassy Island for
$50,000 – $7936.50 an acre. Following the mantra of the times, if Whitaker
could not stop progress, he would at least profit from it.