CULTURAL HERITAGE

Spanishtown Creek

Our project seeks to revive the ecological splendor of our neighborhood's historical oyster gardens, ensuring a resilient future for the bay and its inhabitants.

Wilson Agriscience and Cultural Heritage

One of the goals of the Wilson Middle School Agriscience program is to foster cross-curricular collaboration, transcending disciplines such as agriculture, earth science, life science, mathematics, and cultural heritage. Moreover, our students will emerge as stewards of the environment, equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to address real-world environmental challenges.

Our school is located at 1005 W. Swann Ave. Tampa, Florida, 33606, just down the street from what used to be the natural oyster gardens of the historic Spanishtown Creek. Over the years the namesake of the neighborhood, the creek itself, was covered in concrete and transformed into a culvert as a part of Tampa's stormwater management system. The only reminder of those days long past is a small sign in a neighborhood park and the underground outflow of the creek which empties into Hillsborough Bay underneath the Davis Islands bridge.

With this in mind, and with the education that we receive, we would like to deploy some oyster reef balls and shell bags at the end of our street in Hillsborough Bay. This is a short walk for us and something that our students and parents would never forget. Some fun signage in the area can draw the attention of the South Tampa community to this precious ecological landmark and the preservation of Florida heritage by commemorating Tampa's first settlement - Spanishtown Creek.

A neighborhood sign in a small park reads: "At this site on a small stream was located the first settlement of Tampa Bay. Its inhabitants were Spanish-Cuban fishermen and straw-hat makers. It is believed they settled here toward the end of the eighteenth century, during Spain's second rule of Florida. When the Americans arrived in 1824 and established Fort Brooke, these early settlers were living in palmetto thatched huts and carried on a brisk trade with wandering Cubans who sailed into the bay. Spanishtown Creek is the true genesis of Tampa.

Local history retells how the seafood of Hillsborough Bay and Hillsborough River was so bountiful that the "oysters grew on trees," (mangroves of course). Consider this quote about this part of the bay from the book "River of the Golden Ibis": “Going down at low water, it was no hard task to collect as many oysters as the whole of the two companies could consume; nearly all parts of the coast of Florida furnish these excellent shellfish in inexhaustible quantities.” - River of the Golden Ibis, by Gloria Jahoda

Heritage Art and Poetry