By Susan A. MacManus
Special to The Laker/Lutz News
The Fourth of July is the perfect time to reflect on Lutz’s history as the community gathers to celebrate our nation’s independence. Since 1912, Fourth of July celebrations have played a big part in binding together our community’s old-timers and newcomers.
Like the nation’s founders, Lutz’s early settlers were risk-takers who migrated to the area in search of better opportunities. Once here, they found strength in mingling with neighbors who shared their “can-do” spirit, just as we do today.
Lutz’s Founding: 2011 or 2013?
We are celebrating Lutz’s 100th birthday this year because on Jan. 27, 1913, the U.S. Post Office Department officially granted the area a post office and insisted that it be named Lutz, rather than North Tampa as originally requested.
The proposed North Tampa name came from the North Tampa Land Company— a Chicago-based company that purchased 32,000 acres for development around the train depot in the area we now call Lutz. They gave their development the rather unimaginative name of “North Tampa.” The company advertised its new Florida property extensively in newspapers in the north and Midwest. Many pioneers bought their places here sight unseen— risk-takers for sure.
The first business in North Tampa – North Tampa Stores — was built near the train depot in 1911. It was a two-story building selling groceries, hardware and dry goods. By the end of 1911, the community boasted 30 buildings and a school built by the land company. The reason some regard 1911 as the community’s official birth date is because that’s when the public school and commercial infrastructure was constructed, two years before the post office opened.
The Lutz Name & Trains
The name “Lutz” probably first appeared on a Florida map in 1909 as the name of a train depot that was a stopping place on the Tampa Northern Railroad. The Lutz name comes from two brothers –William and Charles — whose railroad ties had helped develop and link the area. William Lutz was an engineer on the Tampa Northern Railroad. Charles Lutz built the railroad line from Odessa to the Lutz Station depot to link his sawmill to the larger Tampa Northern Railroad route. Where the tracks met became known as Lutz Junction. It was from this well-known junction that the U.S. Post Office chose Lutz as the name of our community rather than North Tampa, which they deemed too easy to confuse with Tampa.
The replica of the Lutz depot and the train sculpture on the Lutz Library façade remind us of the role trains played in the early development of our community, in the North Tampa Land Company’s decision to center its settlement around the depot and in the naming of our town.
Sawmills and Citrus
With much of the area covered in pine trees, lumber and turpentine were boom industries in the early 1900s. Sawmills flourished, including the Tanner and Hoffman sawmills in the Lutz area. The citrus industry survived longer. From the beginning, the North Tampa Land Company promoted the citrus industry to potential residents and investors. The settlers of 1911 found old seedling orange groves when they arrived. C.E. Thomas, the North Tampa Land Company president, started a number of nurseries in the area and used the citrus industry to help some old-timers out of financial jams. Thomas eventually had the second-largest citrus nursery in the state. Many old-timers were also successful in raising citrus of all kinds. Aerial shots of “downtown Lutz” in the 1950s and 1960s show just how much acreage was planted in citrus. And in the 1950s and 1960s, US 41 through Lutz was sprinkled with roadside stands selling local citrus to “Yankees” coming south for the winter then heading back home. Later, big freezes in the 1970s and 1980s took out much of the area’s citrus industry, although there are still orange groves sprinkled throughout the area.
Fourth of July Celebrations
Lutz, then known as North Tampa, had its first Fourth of July picnic in 1912 at a spot south of the County Line Road near the Tampa Northern Railroad’s water tower. In 1916, Lutz had its Fourth of July celebrations in the middle of “downtown” Lutz. One of the highlights was a baseball game featuring Lutz’s own team. The first modern-day celebration was in 1947 on the Lutz Elementary School grounds. The Lutz Civic Association sponsored the celebration and continued to support the event for more than 50 years. In the 1950s, the celebration moved to Bullard Park, site of the old “Y” where the train engines once turned around. From greased-pole climbing contests, hard-fought softball games and shuffleboard tournaments, children’s parades and costume contests, beauty pageants for area “misses,” to the presentation of colors and the spectacular evening fireworks displays, the annual Fourth of July celebrations through the years have offered a little something for everyone. For many a child and adult, some of their fondest memories of Lutz are of our community’s Independence Day festivities — celebrating together.
So enjoy this Fourth of July and Happy Birthday to Lutz and the United States of America.
