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Florida real estate promotional photograph album, 1925.
Amount:
.25 cubic ft.
Medium Included:
photographs : 7.5" x 9.5"
Organization/Arrangement:
Unarranged.
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
Florida experienced a land boom in the first half of the 1920s. Investors from across the nation purchased and sold land in the state to cash in on rising land prices. Most of this activity occurred in central and south Florida. Often, new subdivisions were created out of drained wetlands, revamped agricultural fields, and cleared forests. The Florida Real Estate Investment Corporation Properties, a firm based in Chicago that sold land in Tampa and Melbourne, was an example of these land speculators. The land boom ended in 1926 with that year's devastating hurricane, which struck Miami on 17 September.
In 1917, brothers Alfred (Al) and Jean Burgert founded the Burgert Brothers commercial photographic studio in Tampa, Florida. Their father, Samuel Burgert, had been a photographer first in Ohio and Kentucky, then in Jacksonville, and by 1895, in Tampa. Samuel and another son, Willard, opened S.P. Burgert & Son in Ybor City, Tampa in 1899, and Jean and other brothers assisted with the business on and off until Jean and Al founded their own studio. Al bought out Jean's interest in the business in 1943, then retired and sold it in late 1945 to his nephew Thel Burgert (who later sold his interest) and an employee named Al Severson. Severson continued operating the business under the Burgert Brothers name until he retired in 1963.
During the firm's existence, the brothers took over 80,000 photographs. Magazines such as Life and National Geographic, as well as local newspapers, advertisements, and brochures published many of their photographs. Their photographs are identifiable by the handwritten "Burgert Brothers" logo in the bottom right corner of the prints.
Summary:
This collection contains a photographic real estate promotional album for the Florida Real Estate Investment Corporation Properties from 1925. The album promotes lots for sale in two subdivisions -- Magnolia Park in Melbourne and Pinecrest Villa located just north of Tampa -- and consists of 35 Burgert Brothers photographs of the Tampa and Melbourne areas. The photographs document the social, recreational, and industrial features of the two cities, as well as the development of real estate in the state. Images include highway construction, farming, cigar rolling, citrus packing, house construction, Tampa parades and weekend concerts, swimming in Sulphur Springs, canoeists on the Hillsborough River, hotels, and numerous city landscapes. Also included are copies of several letters of recommendation for the corporation, plus a map of the Tampa area showing Pinecrest Villa.
Finding Aids:
Additional Physical Form:
These images have been digitized and are available on the Florida Memory web site: https://www.floridamemory.com/discover/photographs/
Reproduction Note:
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Associated Materials:
Collection M87-24, Burgert Brother Photographic Collection, 1920-1960, contains a large collection of Burgert Brothers photographs. Also, the Hillsborough County (FL) Public Library houses the original negatives for 15,000 Burgert Brother images.
Language Notes:
Ownership/Custodial History:
Publication Note:
Burgert Brothers photographs are published and/or described in "Pioneer Commercial Photography: The Burgert Brothers, Tampa, Florida," Robert E. Snyder and Jack B. Moore, Gainesville, FL, 1992; and in "Tampa, Florida's Year Round City," Burgert Brothers, Tampa, Fla., n.d (ca. 1920).
Burgert Brothers
Agriculture Florida Construction industry Florida Highway construction. Hotels Florida Photography Real estate business Florida Recreation Florida.
Photographs. aat
Melbourne (Fla.) Tampa (Fla.)
for detailed listing.