The historic Jackson House has stood vacant in downtown Tampa for decades, its floors sagging and roof punctured with holes.
On Saturday, the foundation that owns the building said it hopes to restore and reopen the house as a museum and educational center by 2028.
“For decades, the Jackson House has stood as a reminder of Tampa’s rich African American heritage,” said Carolyn Collins, chairperson of the Jackson House Foundation. “Today, we stand united — determined, organized and closer than ever to restoring this treasured landmark for future generations.”
The foundation in September selected the Tampa-based architecture firm Jerel McCants Architecture Inc. to lead the restoration project. Now, it is seeking a construction management firm and hopes to begin work soon.
Collins said the foundation has secured millions of dollars in city, county, state and federal funding, as well as a $1 million donation from Jeff Vinik and his ex-wife.
Built in the early 1900s, the 24-room boarding house at 851 E. Zack St. played host to decades of fame in an era when Black travelers had few places to stay in segregated Tampa. Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and James Brown all stayed there, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited.
The house closed to the public in 1989 and has since fallen into disrepair.
The floors slant. Cracks climb across the chipped walls. Loose, splintered planks of wood dangle from empty window frames. An architect in 2023 worried it would not survive a major storm.
Efforts to restore the rooming house began years ago.
In 2023, the Tampa City Council unanimously approved a deal with Accardi Properties, which owns a surface parking lot next to the building. The agreement gave the Jackson House Foundation the space for a city-required 10-foot buffer between property boundaries.
But progress slowed in 2024, when Accardi Properties proposed an undisclosed agreement to the foundation.
Last summer, the City Council quietly approved an updated agreement between the city and Accardi Properties, giving the foundation the required buffer to begin the restoration.
But days later, part of the building collapsed, triggering emergency repairs. Siding on the east side of the house, which faces Nebraska Avenue, slid off the already-crumbling facade.
“People think the Jackson House Foundation has failed the house, failed the people,” Collins said in an interview in August. “This collapse lets everybody know what we’ve been dealing with the past few years.”
Angela Scott, vice chairperson of the foundation, said at the news conference on Saturday that people often ask why construction has not yet begun.
“Keep in mind that we are following guidelines to keep our funding in place,” she said. “So when you don’t see anything going on in the front end, we are working diligently in the background, making sure that we can move this project forward.”
Collins said the foundation plans to preserve or repurpose as much material from the building as possible, but that it is “in bad shape.”
“If this house were to fall down, everybody needs to know,” she said, “we’re going to rebuild it.”
