“Historic,” it would seem, is an increasingly relative term. To wit: the Tampa sites that recently passed muster with the Florida National Register Review Board. They are the Fort Homer Hesterly National Guard Armory and the Bro Bowl skateboarding basin at Perry Harvey Sr. Park. Both are now headed to the National Park Service, where National Register staff will make the call.
The Art Deco-style Armory, completed in 1941, has been the site of numerous, nationally-noted speeches including those of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy. Buddy Holly, James Brown, Celia Cruz and Elvis Presley performed there.
The Bro Bowl opened in 1978 and is among the last of the surfer-style concrete bowls from the 1970s. It is not insignificant, but “historic?” The definition evolves.