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Oldsmar Florida Homes

Located on the waters of upper Tampa Bay Water Way between Clearwater and Tampa, the town of Oldsmar has a history, ambience and appeal unique to the region. The town’s appeal and history will forever be tied to its founder, R.E. Olds, who made his fortune in the automobile industry as the designer and builder of the Oldsmobile.

R.E. Olds was a visionary who purchased 37,000 acres of land at the northernmost tip of Tampa Bay during the early part of the 20th century. He envisaged a city of 100,000 people, complete with horseracing tracks, golf courses, beaches, factories, and industrial complexes. Olds became obsessed with his vision and spent nearly ten years designing and building the tree-lined boulevards linking Oldsmar’s waterfront with the downtown area.

Olds constructed a 60-room hotel, grocery, drug and hardware stores, a library, a school and numerous restaurants. In the surrounding areas, he established dairy and beef cattle farms, market gardens producing a rich variety of fruits and vegetables, and a waterfront casino—all badly damaged in the 1921 hurricane.

Olds was disillusioned. His 5 million dollar investment would be the equivalent of over 200 million dollars today, and by 1925 a mere 200 people had settled in his dream “city by the Bay.” Olds began selling his interests in the area, even trading his racetrack, now known as Tampa Bay Downs, for the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. Olds departed the area forever, a study in the ups and downs of real estate development in Florida.

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The final blow for the area, now known as Town and Country, came in 1924 and 1934 with the building of the Gandy Bridge and the Courtney Campbell Causeway. That enabled traffic between the city of Tampa in Hillsborough County and Clearwater in Pinellas County, to bypass Oldsmar. Ghostlike, the buildings of Olds stood for the next 50 years. The town center of Oldsmar stayed a sparsely populated backwater that watched the rest of the Tampa Bay area expand. Expand and modernize with a boom in housing, population, industry and commerce.

The farms that Olds had established, however, continued on, supplying the growing Florida population with beef and dairy products until the mid-‘50’s, when a property developer turned a 500-acre dairy farm into a residential subdivision. The subdivision was called Town and Country Park and represented the start of residential growth for the area that saw over 8,000 single family homes sold by one developer alone by 1978. The Town and Country area now encompasses an area much larger than the original subdivision of that name and describes the entire region on and around the shores of upper Tampa Bay.

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Today over 200,000 people live in the upper Tampa Bay area, with 14,000 living within the Oldsmar city limits. It is a town that incorporates the historically important buildings constructed by Olds in the ‘20’s, his tree-lined boulevards, and modern structures that reflect the affluence of the residents. Olds himself, were he alive today, would be surprised by how his dream was more than fulfilled. How his original investment had multiplied. But that is the story of real estate speculation isn’t it? Staying the course. Having the resources and rectitude to hold on until an investment is realized.

Today the area appeals to retirees, young people looking to raise a family, and property investors. It is also a highly desirable commercial address, being strategically located at the center of the Hillsborough, Pinellas and fast growing northern Counties.

Only 15 minutes from Tampa International Airport, Oldsmar has also become an attractive site and corporate headquarters for a number of large companies. With the nearby ports of Tampa and St. Petersburg providing easy access to world markets, this region has become one of America’s leaders for the manufacture of electronic products.

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Oldsmar and the surrounding Upper Tampa Bay area is now a unique combination of new upscale housing developments, commercial areas and industrial parks, interspersed with established neighborhoods dating as far back as the days of Olds.

No, it’s not downtown Tampa, St. Petersburg or Clearwater. And that’s how the residents, business people and elected officials want to keep the city of Oldsmar—different---but with its own unique appeal. Oldsmar has an old world charm that Olds would have approved of.

Oldsmar is the center of a region that has gated communities with million dollar homes fronting first class golf courses and country clubs. There are also waterfront developments with Mediterranean style residences leading down to boat sheds on Upper Tampa Bay and mixed residential villages that are using some of the latest concepts in town planning to create integrated communities with green areas for recreation. These layouts take advantage of the natural beauty in the region while preserving the ecology.

We at Rigler Realty love this area and what it has become.

Contact me, Tracy Rigler if you want to move into this wonderful part of the world. I’ll guarantee I can save you money on the home of your choice.

You have my word on it.

Photography provided courtesy of Pinellas County Communications Department