Palace of Florence Apartments, Mediterranean Revival apartment building in Davis Islands, Tampa, United States.
The Palace of Florence Apartments is a 28-unit apartment building at 45 Davis Boulevard on Davis Islands, Tampa. Its Mediterranean Revival design by artist Athos Menaboni mixes medieval and classical elements to reproduce an Italian palazzo, loosely based on the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. It features a four-story battlement tower with an exterior staircase.
The building was constructed in 1925 during the Florida land boom, a period of intense real estate development and building activity in the region. It entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, documenting an important era in American architectural history.
The name comes from the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, on which Athos Menaboni loosely based his design. Menaboni was a painter, not a trained architect, and the building reproduces a grand Italian palazzo on a Florida island. The 28 apartments are private homes, so the facade and its four-story battlement tower are what passers-by see from Davis Boulevard.
The building stands at 45 Davis Boulevard on Davis Islands, a residential peninsula south of downtown Tampa reached by the Davis Boulevard causeway. It is a private apartment block, so the facade and the four-story tower are seen from the street; residents' entrances and the exterior staircase are not open to visitors.
The 1989 listing came through a Multiple Property Submission titled "Mediterranean Revival Style Buildings of Davis Islands", covering twenty-three structures built during the 1920s Florida land boom. The Palace of Florence was one of them, and its full restoration followed in 2002–2003.
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