Everything worth knowing about Tampa's oldest, most walkable neighborhood — from a weekly that obsesses over exactly these blocks. Every fact below traces to a public source.
Hyde Park sits just across the Hillsborough River, west of downtown Tampa. Its spine is Bayshore Boulevard — the waterfront drive famous for its balustrade and its sidewalk, which runs uninterrupted for 4.5 miles (7.2 km) from Columbus Statue Park to Gandy Boulevard; Guinness World Records calls it the second-longest continuous sidewalk in the United States, after Galveston's Seawall.
At the neighborhood's center is Hyde Park Village, the open-air shopping and dining district. The nightlife-and-restaurant corridor along South Howard Avenue is known locally as SoHo. A block off the water, the streets turn to brick under a canopy of oaks.
Hyde Park is, by the city's own account, Tampa's oldest existing neighborhood. The name dates to 1886, when Obadiah Platt borrowed it from his hometown of Hyde Park, Illinois, and the area filled in with the homes that still define it through the 1920s and '30s.
Much of it is formally protected: the Hyde Park Historic Districts were added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1985, covering roughly 560 acres and some 1,264 buildings — one of the larger historic districts in Florida.
Bern's Steak House, on South Howard Avenue at 1208 S. Howard Ave., was founded by Bern and Gert Laxer in 1956 and is famous for one of the largest restaurant wine collections in the world and for the Harry Waugh Dessert Room, which opened in 1985.
In Hyde Park Village, On Swann is a New American restaurant that opened in 2016 and has earned a place in the Michelin Guide's Florida selection. The Village mix changes — tenants come and go — which is exactly what a weekly is for; we keep this current.
Kate Jackson Park and its community center sit at 821 S. Rome Avenue, on land that was once the property of Kate Jackson — a civic leader credited with helping establish Tampa's first public playgrounds and founding the Tampa Civic Association. The grounds were renamed in her honor in 1975 and the current community center was dedicated in 2003.
Hyde Park United Methodist Church, at 500 W. Platt Street, traces its beginning to 1899; its historic sanctuary was built in 1907, making it one of the neighborhood's oldest continuous institutions and a handy steeple to orient by.
Hyde Park is a historic neighborhood in South Tampa, just across the Hillsborough River west of downtown, running along Bayshore Boulevard and around Hyde Park Village.
Hyde Park Village is the open-air shopping and dining district at the center of the neighborhood. It opened as a modern open-air center in 1985 and was revitalized through the 2010s.
Bayshore Boulevard is known for its balustraded waterfront sidewalk, which runs continuously for about 4.5 miles (7.2 km). Guinness World Records lists it as the second-longest continuous sidewalk in the United States.
Yes. The Hyde Park Historic Districts were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1985, covering roughly 560 acres and about 1,264 buildings.
Very. The open-air Hyde Park Village is built for strolling, Bayshore Boulevard has a continuous 4.5-mile waterfront sidewalk, and the inner streets are brick, shaded by oaks, and lined with historic homes — it's one of the most walkable corners of Tampa.
SoHo is short for South Howard Avenue — the restaurant-and-nightlife corridor that runs through Hyde Park. It's where you'll find a dense run of dining and bars, including the longtime institution Bern's Steak House.
It's Tampa's oldest existing neighborhood. The name dates to 1886, it grew up alongside Henry Plant's Tampa Bay Hotel in the late 1880s, and it filled in with the homes that still define it by the 1920s and '30s.
Stroll and shop in Hyde Park Village, eat along South Howard (SoHo), walk or run the balustraded Bayshore Boulevard sidewalk along the bay, and wander the historic brick streets to take in the Craftsman, Queen Anne, and Mediterranean Revival architecture.
Stoop is a free weekly for Hyde Park, Tampa — the openings, the history, the people behind it.
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