I am easily distracted. Whether it is moving from project to project at my house or at the Nursery or just when I’m writing this newsletter and decide to go down a rabbit hole on some small piece of information, it doesn’t take much to pull my attention away from what I should be doing. 

But sometimes those distractions turn into a newsletter all of their own. As I was writing Life Lived Outside a few weeks ago about the little tree that could, I wanted to get the name of the bridge that we were walking over correct. I thought it was Laurel Street, but as Kim can attest to, I am really bad at directions and the names of streets and landmarks, so I figured it was worth checking. It was the bridge on Laurel Street as I’d thought, but as I zoomed in on Google Maps, I saw the name: Madame Fortune Taylor Bridge. 

I was born in Tampa, raised in Tampa, went to Hillsborough High School, did youth orchestra at the Straz Center, worked downtown and in Ybor City for Tampa Electric, and now I’ve been rowing at the Bob Buckhorn River Center for over a year. And in the nearly five decades that have passed, I have never heard that name before. And this is where I love these little rabbit holes, because this discovery led me to a very interesting story.

This is the inscription from a plaque that you can find near the bridge:

“Fortune and Benjamin Taylor were brought to Florida from South Carolina in the 1850s. They were owned by the Howell family. At the end of the Civil War, the newly freed couple were among the first African Americans to legally marry. Freedom came to Tampa’s enslaved African Americans on May 5, 1864; Benjamin and Fortune wed on that same date in 1866.

On January 20, 1868 Benjamin claimed a thirty-three acre homestead on the east side of the Hillsborough River. Together, the couple tended orchards of oranges, guavas and peaches. After Benjamin’s death in 1869, Fortune was granted homestead to the property on July 1, 1875. The street that ran through the property from the river to Oaklawn Cemetery, was eventually named for her. The Fortune Street Bridge was built in 1892 in order to promote the struggling cigar industry in West Tampa. Financed by Hugh C. Macfarlane, the bridge connected Fortune Street to the east and Arch Street to the west. With the bridge in place, cigar factories flourished and the development of West Tampa began.

Fortune Taylor became a successful businesswoman. She married her second husband, Edward in the 1880s. She lived her final years on Spring Street and died September 11, 1906.”

And that’s not the end of the rabbit hole. As I was researching who Madame Fortune was, I came across a restaurant in Ybor City named after her. So of course, Kim and I had to go and give it a try. It was a wonderful meal with tasty dishes that had a West Indian flair to them. The coolest thing is that sort of like the hidden history of the Madame Fortune bridge, you would never notice this restaurant. It is a hidden speakeasy, and we were emailed a password ahead of time to give to the cashier in the deli that fronts the actual restaurant. I’ve recently walked up and down Ybor at different times of day and had no idea this restaurant was there.

This just proves to me that getting distracted by something is a good thing. It can lead us on paths that we didn’t even know existed! This one was a fun one, both for learning a little more about Tampa history and a delightful date night for Kim and me.

So what are you distracting yourself with lately? Gardening, sourdough, yoga? All of the above? Perfect, then we’ve got a great day on deck for you this Saturday. You can do all three! Yoga in the Garden will be at 9:30 am – get tickets here – plus Spellbound Sourdough will be here from 10 am to sellout, and of course we are open all weekend to help you find some great plants for your home and garden. Sunday, Daddy Pig’s BBQ and A Slice Above Cakes by Ashlee will be here slinging their delicious sandwiches and sweets. Yep, we’ve got the perfect way for you to have fun and avoid doing what you are supposed to be doing. After all, you never know where it will lead you.