Dupree's Dream

Abandoned 900 acre botanical garden established by Tampa Attorney J. WM. Dupree in 1940. It featured a lodge, a tea room, a gift shop and electric glass bott...
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Abandoned 900 acre botanical garden established by Tampa Attorney J. WM. Dupree in 1940. It featured a lodge, a tea room, a gift shop and electric glass bottom boat rides in Lake Dupree. The park was closed due to gasoline rationing in 1943, and was later sold in 1945 in a New York City Auction for the War Bond effort. It netted $250,000. The photo here is what is left of the gate house as it stands today. In 2003 the property was acquired by a Tampa home builder, and has been completely lost to Suburban Sprawl
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Canon EOS REBEL T3i

settings

Aperture f/5.0 ISO 100 Shutter 1/50

upload_date

Sep, 2014

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117

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This is a conservation FAIL. Dupree established this attraction with his own money and later sold it in the War Bond effort. The area lost some of its history when the park was leveled for a housing development. Much can be said about Dupree and his efforts to realize a dream by creating the attraction and later making sacrifice of it to support the war. These are the sacrifices that are no longer made in this country. It would have been nice to see him repaid by conserving this beautiful place.

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