Hutchinson House, Second Empire residence in Hyde Park, Tampa, United States.
Hutchinson House is a three-story red-brick building at 304 Plant Avenue, completed in 1908 in the Second Empire style. Its walls are about 18 inches of solid brick, laid with unusually tight mortar joints. The third floor sits inside a hand-cut slate mansard roof, and a porch with tall Corinthian columns fronts the house.
Currie J. Hutchinson, a local merchant, began construction in 1906 and finished the house in 1908, shipping most materials from his home state of Ohio. It served as a hospital from about 1932 to 1946, then as a rooming house until 1958, and later as a Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house until 1977. The U.S. Department of the Interior listed it on the National Register of Historic Places on November 1, 1977.
Currie J. Hutchinson ran a pharmacy on Franklin Street in downtown Tampa while his family lived in the house. From about 1932 to 1946 the building served as a hospital, then as a rooming house until 1958, when the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity moved in. It stayed a fraternity house until 1977, when the University of Tampa removed its fraternities from campus.
The house is located at 304 South Plant Avenue in Tampa's Hyde Park neighborhood. A historical marker at the corner of South Plant Avenue and Hyde Park Place identifies the site for visitors.
The mansard roof's slate shingles were each cut by hand and have lasted more than a century. Three chimneys rise about 10 feet above the roofline, serving five fireplaces and a basement stove. A replica of the original gas lantern returned to the front yard in 2007.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 92,652 contributors worldwide.