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Hillsborough County Courthouse
Tampa, Florida |
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| Completed -
1992 Architect - Photos: Robert Deering 10/16/2006 |
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 1891 Courthouse |
 1952 Courthouse |
COUNTY NAMED FOR: Wills Hill, the Earl of Hillsborough and British Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1768-1772.
COUNTY SEAT NAMED FOR: The word "Tampa" may mean "sticks of fire" in the language of the Calusa, a Native American tribe that once lived south of today’s Tampa Bay. This might be a reference to the many lightning strikes that the area receives during the summer months. Other historians claim the name means "the place to gather sticks". Toponymist George R. Stewart writes that the name was the result of a miscommunication between the Spanish and the Indians, the Indian word being "itimpi", meaning simply "near it". The name first appears in the "Memoir" of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (1575), who had spent 17 years as a Calusa captive. He calls it "Tanpa" and describes it as an important Calusa town. While "Tanpa" may be the basis for the modern name "Tampa", archaeologist Jerald Milanich places the Calusa village of Tanpa at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, the original "Bay of Tanpa". A later Spanish expedition did not notice Charlotte Harbor while sailing north along the west coast of Florida and assumed that the current Tampa Bay was the bay they sought. The name was accidentally transferred north. Map makers were using the term Bay or Bahia Tampa as early as 1695.
STANDING: 1952 Modern courthouse and 1992 high-rise building.
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