Tampa Is…?

95 years ago…

July 21, 1911 – During a special address to city council, Dr. Hiram Byrd urges Tampa to improve its sewerage situation. Byrd, the assistant state health officer of Florida, cites the need for adequate sewerage as the state’s greatest overall need. In Tampa, he said, nearly 5,000 people were not supplied with sewerage, a number equivalent to the population of Gainesville. Byrd enthralled the captive audience with information on germ carrying flies, unsanitary dairy conditions, septic tank usage, and the inherent risks of typhoid. The Tampa Morning-Tribune called Byrd’s address “probably the most masterly one ever given in Tampa on the question of sanitation.”

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center.