The Captain William Parker Jackson House

Before Bayshore had mansions and before Davis Islands was even dredged out of the bay, the land north of downtown Tampa was farmland. On a narrow lot on East Lambright Street, one farmhouse from that era is still standing: the home of Captain William Parker Jackson, a man born into one of Tampa's founding pioneer families.

I wanted to start this series here because this house reaches further back into Tampa's story than almost anything else you can still drive past. It was built when Tampa was a small Gulf port, years before the cigar boom, Henry Plant's railroad, or the Tampa Bay Hotel changed everything.

Who Was Captain William Parker Jackson?

William Parker Jackson was born on November 11, 1847. His parents, Robert Andrew Jackson Jr. and Nancy Coller Jackson, are remembered as Tampa pioneers. Their 1836 wedding is believed to be the first recorded marriage on Florida's west coast, according to reporting by the Tampa Bay Times.

The son made his name on the water. Captain Jackson piloted passenger and mail ships on routes from Cedar Key to New Orleans and from Tampa to Cuba, at a time when steamships were Tampa's lifeline to the rest of the world. Back on land, the family farm ran cattle and orange groves.

A 152-Acre Farm North of Downtown

According to an 1852 survey plat, the Jackson property once stretched across 152 acres along what is now Nebraska Avenue, reaching all the way to the Hillsborough River. Today that same ground is covered by streets, bungalows, businesses, and Interstate 275, which was built right beside the house in the 1960s.

That's the part of this story I find most fascinating as a Realtor. A single family homestead became an entire slice of a city neighborhood. Most of the homes around the Jackson house today are modest bungalows from the 1920s, the kind of streets that grew up on what used to be open farmland.

The House Itself

The National Register nomination describes the home as a two-story, wood-frame I-House built around 1885. An I-House is a simple, symmetrical design, two rooms wide and one room deep, that was popular across the American South from colonial times through the 1800s. Jackson's version adds Folk Victorian details that were fashionable in the 1880s.

One detail fits the captain perfectly: the farmhouse's mantel may have been salvaged from the Hiram Cool, an iron-hulled steamship that ran aground. A sea captain reusing a piece of a shipwreck in his own living room is about as Tampa as it gets.

How the House Was Saved

Plenty of Tampa's pioneer-era buildings were lost as the city grew. This one survived, and the neighborhood made sure it would be recognized. The Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association helped document the property for its historic designation, and the home has been featured on the neighborhood's annual home tour.

• 2011: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
• 2015: Designated a City of Tampa historic landmark.

If you go see it, please enjoy it from the sidewalk and respect the privacy of the people who live there.

What This House Teaches Us About Tampa Real Estate

Every Tampa neighborhood sits on layers of history. The bungalow you're touring in Seminole Heights or the cottage you love in Hyde Park was once part of something else: a farm, a grove, a pioneer homestead. When I help families buy older homes, that history is part of the value, and it also comes with real questions about inspections, insurance, and historic-district rules. I walk through those in my guide to buying historic homes in South Tampa.

"I grew up hearing that Tampa doesn't have much old architecture left. Houses like this one prove it's still here if you know where to look." — Ignacio Toraño