TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Hyde Park that many people in Tampa know and love today looked very different in the early 20th century. There was once a bustling neighborhood that housed 10% of the African Americans in the city called Dobyville.
“We were a family,” recalls 70-year-old former resident Michelle B. Patty. “It didn’t have to be by blood that we cared about one another.”
The name Dobyville came about because of a Black civic leader named Richard C. Doby who lived in the area and donated real estate for the community. The neighborhood extended several blocks in each direction from his home located at 1405 Azeele Street in West Hyde Park.
Patty attended Dobyville School from first through sixth grade, and fondly remembers her educational experience, although it lacked the resources that other institutions had due to segregation.
“We learned Bible verses before class could start and we had to read and we did our math and we did everything,” she said. “It was a very secure atmosphere.”
Charles Davis, 83, had a similar experience at the school.
“We’d play ball out in the dirt and when we’d come to school the next day, the first thing the teacher did is look behind the ears and if you had dirt back there, she’d assume you didn’t take a bath and she’d get a cloth or something,” he said. “Seriously, they were really concerned about us.”
The Dobyville School closed in the 1960s and was later torn down. Many of the multi-generational families that lived in the area moved away when the Crosstown Expressway, now known as the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway, was built in the area and divided the community’s unity. Most of the homes were also torn down by the 1980s.
Davis now organizes reunions for former students to keep the memories alive. He also still sings the lyrics to the Dobyville School song: “Dobyville, Dobyville, the school we love in West Hyde Park! In the winter, in the springtime, it’s the only place to be. You can get yourself together and come on to school; take what we have to offer and obey all the rules. Dobyville, Dobyville, the school we love in West Hyde Park!”
One lasting memory of Dobyville that still stands is Richard Doby’s home.
“I’m very excited to be the next steward of this property,” said Tara Nelan, the current resident.
The home now shares in a local historic designation to preserve the legacy.
You can learn more about Dobyville by watching WFLA’s special Black History Month presentation, “Rooted in Progress,” which airs Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. on News Channel 8, and again on Feb. 25 at 11 p.m. on The CW Tampa Bay.
