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General Note

View is looking southwest at the intersection of Franklin and Lafayette streets. Note the Hillsborough County Courthouse (domed building at the lower right).

Accompanying note: "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 focused upon 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."

This image represents a photographic real estate promotional picture for the Florida Real Estate Investment Corporation Properties from 1925. The photograph was used to sell lots in the subdivision Pinecrest Villa located just north of Tampa.

Biographical Note

Burgert Brothers commercial photographic studio was founded in 1917 by brothers Alfred (Al) and Jean Burgert. 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 helped out in 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. Many of the photographs were published in magazines such as Life and National Geographic, as well as in local newspapers, advertisements, and brochures. Their photographs are identified by the handwritten "Burgert Brothers" logo in the bottom right corner of the prints.