TAMPA, Fla. — Over the next week, we’ll be highlighting the impact African Americans have had on the Tampa Bay area. You’ll hear about historical Black figures and places that helped to make Tampa Bay what it is today.
Fred Hearns, a historian with the Tampa History Center, highlighted a former African American community in Tampa named after the Black businessman who started it.
“Dobyville was named for the Black businessman, Richard Doby, who settled in West Hyde Park in the 1880s,” said Hearns.
Doby began as a garbage collector and did many other jobs, where Hearns said his patrons were Black and white. He saved a lot of the money he had.
“He was able to invest in real estate, and he bought property in that area known as West Hyde Park and also in other parts of Tampa,” Hearns explained.
Hearns said the Dobyville community in West Hyde Park exists primarily in the memory of people who grew up there.
He added that the construction of the crosstown expressway goes through the middle of much of what once was Dobyville.
Now, there’s a historical marker dedicated to Dobyville on West Platt Street at the intersection of South Willow Avenue.
