Hutchinson House

About this property

The Hutchinson House is a historic home completed in 1908 in Tampa, Florida, United States. It is a three-story brick building in the Second Empire architecture. The building includes a high mansard roof and large porch with tall Corinthian columns. It was built by Currie J. Hutchinson, a local merchant, and is one of the few structures of its style in Florida. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1977, and is located at 304 Plant Avenue. The Hutchinson House was built by Mr. Currie Hutchinson. Construction began in 1906 and the building was finished in 1908. Most of the building materials were shipped from Hutchinson's home state of Ohio. The masonry technique was rather unusual and allowed for a very tight mortar line in between the red bricks. The exterior walls are approximately 18 inches thick of solid brick. The building even has a basement, which has remained dry for over 100 years, despite being situated less than 1/8 of a mile from the Tampa Bay. There are 5 working fireplaces, 3 on the first floor, two on the second floor and a stove in the basement. The total construction cost was reported to be approximately six thousand five hundred dollars. A small fortune back then. The Hutchinson Mansion was occupied by the Hutchinson family while Mr. Hutchinson operated his pharmacy on Franklin Street in downtown Tampa. It was next used as a hospital from approximately 1932 to 1946. Hutchinson House was then used as a rooming house until 1958 when it became the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. It remained a fraternity house until 1977 the University of Tampa kicked all the fraternities off the campus and the Hutchinson house was left empty (and in very rough shape). The University of Tampa sold the mansion to the City of Tampa. The City of Tampa sold the Hutchinson House to the Tampa Preservation Society, which commenced a major restoration of the building which continued for approximately two years. In 1980, attorney William B. Plowman began negotiations with the Tampa Preservation Society to purchase the Hutchinson House. He purchased the building in 1981, and continued the restoration including improvements to the first, second and third floors, most notably restoring access to the third floor without interfering with the interior flow of the house. All historical aspects were strictly adhered to during all the restorations. In 1989, Matt Powell rented space from Mr. Plowman. Matt loved the building so much that he was able to persuade Mr. Plowman to transfer the duties of the Hutchinson House to him in 1999. Matt Powell purchased the historical building and has continued to preserve, restore and maintain this magnificent building.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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