The Old Schoolhouse or Little School Building, which dates back to the 1850s,
is located on the University of Tampa campus in Tampa.
MARCH/APRIL 2020 | TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 141
In 1865 or 1866, Gen. Carter traded his
land and the Old Schoolhouse to fellow
settler Jessie J. Hayden for the prized
white horse that had helped transport
the Hayden family and their belongings
from Georgia to the fledgling community
in central west Florida. We know the little
schoolhouse was used by its new owners
because their granddaughter, Marion A.
McKay, was born inside it in 1875.
Shipping and transportation magnate
Henry Bradley Plant of Connecticut, who
transformed western Florida and the Tampa
Bay area by bringing railroads, seagoing
vessels and hotels here, purchased a
portion of the western Hillsborough River
property from Hayden in 1886, and in 1890,
purchased additional land from Hayden’s
daughter Nattie S. McKay to total 60 acres.
Plant eventually razed Gen. Carter’s family
house to build his exotically glamorous
Tampa Bay Hotel, which became Plant Hall
of the University of Tampa in 1933. The Old
Schoolhouse, however, was spared, moved
and repurposed as an apothecary shop run
by Dr. J.M. Grantham. This schoolhouse
that has a Tampa Bay Hotel Co. inscription
beneath its front pediment was later used
for storage, and probably to fill other needs
over the years, until it was gifted to the
Daughters of the American Revolution, an
ambitious, caring group that we can thank
for their diligent efforts to save one of the
earliest remaining vestiges of our Tampa
Bay area’s history.9