Plaque Marks Spot of First Tampa Bay Settlement

Long before Bayshore Boulevard was known for its exquisite homes and miles of seawall balustrade, and even before the establishment of Fort Brooke in 1824, Bayshore was home to a community of Spanish-Cubans who established the first non-native settlement in Tampa Bay. 

The settlement was established near the end of the eighteenth century at the mouth of Spanishtown Creek, a small freshwater creek that emptied into the bay near the present day Davis Island Bridge. The inhabitants of the settlement were fishermen and straw-hat makers who lived in palmetto-thatched homes and traded with Cubans who sailed in and out of the bay.

The inhabitants of Spanishtown Creek eventually left the area and the creek has since been filled in and built over.

A plaque near Bayshore Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue marks the location of the settlement.