EXTRA Southern Furniture Exchange Building
LOCATION: 1110 North Florida Avenue, Tampa, FL 33602
ARCHITECT:
BUILT: 1926
SIZE:
ORIGINAL FUNCTION: Furniture Store
CURRENT USE: Vacant
PHOTO CREDITS: Randy Van Duinen, Architectural Photographer
The Southern Furniture Exchange Building at 1110 North Florida Avenue is a three-story, brick, Masonry Vernacular style building probably constructed 1926. A portion of the south elevation that rises above the building at 1102-1106 North Florida Avenue bears the remains of a painted advertisement for “Southland Furniture—1110 North Florida Avenue.” Southland Furniture was the name of the last occupant of the building before it was vacated in the early 1990s.
1110 North Florida Avenue is one of eight commercial buildings that comprise three city blocks of the North Franklin Street Historic Commercial District. All of the buildings are one- to three-story commercial buildings constructed between c. 1906 and c. 1951. These buildings are significant for their distinctive Commercial Masonry Vernacular style and for the role they played in the historical commercial development of downtown Tampa.
The main facade of the Southern Furniture Exchange Building is constructed of buff colored brick and exhibits a low, shaped parapet at the roofline. At the street level of the main facade, the storefront has original storefront elements—display windows, recessed entrance bay, transom and clerestory lights. According to historic photographs of North Florida Avenue buildings, the window openings on the second and third stories originally featured paired, double-hung, 1 over 1 light windows. Same style new windows replaced the old and the whole building was historically renovated in 2002.
The interior renovation exposed brick walls, open beam ceilings, and a two-story lobby atrium. The third story existing mezzanine has a usable 1600 s.f. roof-top deck overlooking Downtown Tampa. The Building is located in an area of intense re-development and rapidly appreciating values with great visibility.