Jackson House Suffers Another Partial Collapse Weeks After Tampa Approved $1 Million for Repairs

A section of Tampa's historic Jackson House gave way over Labor Day weekend, tearing open part of the 1901 boarding house on Zach Street just three weeks after the city council approved $1 million to help fix it. The collapse leaves a hole straight through the structure, according to local news reports, and has reignited a decade-old argument at city hall over who should be responsible for saving one of the last physical traces of Tampa's historic Black Central Avenue community.

The damage happened sometime over the holiday weekend, city officials said. It is the second partial collapse in roughly a year; another section of the house came down last summer. The Jackson House Foundation, the nonprofit that owns the property, was already scheduled to brief the council this week on its restoration plans before the new damage occurred. It is not yet clear how the collapse will change that presentation.

A landmark from a segregated era

The Jackson House opened in 1901 as a boarding house for Black travelers arriving at Tampa Union Station during Jim Crow segregation, when lodging options for Black visitors were sharply limited across the city. It stayed in business until 1989 and, over the decades, hosted performers including James Brown, Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald.

Councilman Bill Carlson called it one of the only remaining structures tied to what was once a thriving Black business district downtown, describing a Central Avenue corridor that sat between the city's white and Latin communities and functioned much like Ybor City did for immigrant Tampa. Council Chair Alan Clendenin said the conversation about restoring the building has dragged on for more than a decade with little to show for it.

Years of delays

The foundation's leadership has told council that complications with contractors, FEMA and other issues have slowed the work repeatedly. The group's current plan calls for a roughly $4 million restoration that would take up to two years to complete.

Carlson said he has pushed more than once for the city to step in and help stabilize the building, but that the foundation has resisted city involvement. He argues the structure now needs to be carefully taken apart, piece by piece, with materials labeled and assessed for what can still be salvaged before any rebuild begins.

Clendenin was more blunt. He told local reporters that if the foundation cannot get the job done, it should turn the property over to the City of Tampa so the city can finish it. The city does not currently own the Jackson House; it is controlled entirely by the independent foundation, which has held the property through years of deterioration and multiple collapses.

What happens next

The $1 million approved in August was earmarked strictly for hard construction costs, not design or engineering work, and came with conditions requiring the foundation to secure permits and show a real funding plan within a year. Whether this collapse changes that timeline, or the terms attached to the money, is now up to the council and the foundation to sort out at this week's update.

Local news outlets reported they reached out to the Jackson House Foundation for comment after the collapse and had not received a response as of publication. The foundation has previously said it aims to have the building restored by 2028.

Stay with Tampa Community Website for updates on the Jackson House and other stories shaping downtown Tampa. Join the conversation in our Community Forum, follow us on Facebook, and read more Tampa government and preservation stories as this debate continues at city hall.

Header photo: Ebyabe / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5)