A T T R A C T I O NS F R O M T H E P A S T
Tampa Bay Tourist Destinations
By Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez
If you look at any of the Hillsborough or Pinellas County tourism
brochures today, you will see colorful photos of the Tampa Bay
Rays hitting homers at Tropicana Field and two dozen screaming
riders hurtling down the 200-foot-tall drop on Busch Gardens’ SheiKra
roller coaster. However, these weren’t the scenes that lured droves of
northerners to the sunny clime of the Tampa Bay area in the 1960s, ‘70s,
and ‘80s. Here are eight of the many long-gone landmarks of Tampa,
St. Petersburg and Clearwater that once drew tourists from all over the
world to our paradise along the Gulf.
42 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2015