Dobyville in Tampa, Florida

Dobyville was a Black neighborhood beside Hyde Park, also known as West Hyde Park, that by the 1920s was one of Tampa's primary African American neighborhoods, according to the City of Tampa SoulWalk marker.

The SoulWalk text says the neighborhood was named for long time resident Richard Cornelius Doby and sets its approximate historic boundaries at Gray Street on the north, Horatio Street on the south, Rome Avenue on the west and Willow Avenue on the east. The Hillsborough County history page notes that a Dobyville historical marker, erected in 2007 by the Hillsborough County Historical Advisory Council, stands on West Platt Street at South Willow Avenue.

The table gathers the dates that official sources give for Dobyville, from Doby's birth to the most recent preservation steps.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading the City of Tampa SoulWalk marker and SoulWalk overview, two City historic preservation pages, the Hillsborough County Faces Behind the Places profile of Richard Doby, and the Tampa Housing Authority's Zion Cemetery page.

Richard Cornelius Doby was a Tampa businessman, born in Alachua County on April 25, 1865, who built a fortune delivering ice and collecting garbage and gave land for Dobyville's school and Zion Cemetery, according to Hillsborough County.

The county profile notes that some sources give 1864 or 1867 as his birth year, that his parents were natives of South Carolina, and that historians assume the family moved to what is now Tampa's Hyde Park neighborhood around the time of his birth or shortly after. Doby had no formal education, but his businesses let him buy real estate in West Hyde Park and across Tampa. Historians think he died in 1937 or 1938.

His gifts shaped the neighborhood that carries his name. The county says Doby bought and donated land for the Dobyville School, helped fund a church, and in 1901 bought and gave land for Zion Cemetery, the first cemetery in the city specifically for Black people. The SoulWalk marker adds that he was the grandfather of noted Hillsborough County educator Inez Doby, and the City's historic preservation page calls him a prominent businessman and property owner whose contributions led to the neighborhood being named in his honor.

Dobyville was a segregated but largely self contained neighborhood of nearly 3,000 people in the mid 1920s, with its own churches, schools and Black owned businesses, according to the City of Tampa historic preservation page.

The City page describes Dobyville as considered one of the finer segregated Black neighborhoods. Hillsborough County estimates that about 10 percent of Tampa's Black population lived in Dobyville by the late 1920s, partly because many residents worked nearby as launderers, gardeners, butlers and in other jobs for Hyde Park's wealthy population. The county describes the community as an aspirational, middle class neighborhood with several schools, a church and Black owned businesses, a haven for people of color to worship, learn, work and prosper together.

The school at its center was public. The SoulWalk marker calls the Dobyville School a segregated public school for African Americans, built on land Doby donated at 4407 S. Dakota Avenue, and notes that several businesses and churches also served the area's residents.

Dobyville was emptied by two public decisions, a 1950s rezoning for industrial uses and the South Crosstown Expressway that opened in 1976, according to the City of Tampa SoulWalk marker.

The marker says that after the zoning was changed in the 1950s to accommodate industrial uses and restrict construction of new homes, the neighborhood's population north of Kennedy Boulevard declined. The Dobyville School remained open until 1966. Construction of the South Crosstown Expressway, which opened in 1976, dealt what the marker calls a crushing blow to Dobyville, because many homes and businesses were demolished to clear the way for the road.

Little of the built neighborhood survives. The SoulWalk text says relatively few buildings remain from Dobyville's past, although the neighborhood is still home to several long time residents and lives in the memories of many former residents and their families. The City's historic preservation page describes a c.1912 wood frame house that Doby owned in the 1920s as the last extant historic building associated with him, a modest structure much like the other houses built throughout the Dobyville neighborhood.

Dobyville's story is now part of a citywide trail. The City's SoulWalk program, unveiled in February 2023, is an arts and heritage trail celebrating the history of Tampa's Black communities; the City says it connects nearly 100 destinations, including more than 25 historical markers and a set of cemeteries that preserve Tampa's Black heritage, and the Dobyville marker text quoted on this page is one of those markers. The City also points visitors to the Bloomberg Connects app for descriptions of every SoulWalk site.

Zion Cemetery, the roughly 2.5 acre burial ground Doby created in 1901, was later built over, and about 1.5 acres of it lie under Robles Park Village, according to the Tampa Housing Authority.

The authority's page says the cemetery is believed to be Tampa's first African American cemetery, that Doby sold it in 1907 to a Black owned casket company, and that by the mid to late 1920s it was owned by white businessmen who parceled it out for development. In about 1949 the Tampa Housing Authority assembled land for Robles Park Village, its sixth public housing development, and acquired land of which about 1.5 acres turned out to be part of the cemetery; crews dug up three coffins during construction in 1951.

The authority commissioned a Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessment in June 2019, which confirmed that the 2.5 acre cemetery was originally located east of Florida Avenue and south of East Virginia Avenue. Ground penetrating radar results reported to the Zion Archeological Advisory Committee on August 30, 2019 showed more than 126 anomalies presumed to be intact coffins about 4 to 6 feet below ground, across roughly 30 percent of the 1.5 acre site under five Robles Park Village buildings. The authority relocated the families living in those five buildings and has committed to preserving the land as a memorial cemetery or park as Robles Park Village is redeveloped.

The Tampa Housing Authority page gives two reasons for that relocation: families need housing that is decent, safe and sanitary, and the site, now considered historical, needs further archeological work to resolve the radar anomalies before it is prepared as a memorial cemetery, park or other respectful use. The authority adds that planning for the Robles Park Village redevelopment should create pedestrian links to the memorial so that Zion Cemetery becomes a community amenity rather than an isolated parcel, a goal it says it remains committed to and seeks partners for.

Part of the former Dobyville area has been protected since January 5, 2023, when an expansion of the Hyde Park Local Historic District took effect, according to the City of Tampa historic preservation office.

The City page says the district was expanded to the north to include an additional 184 buildings in the Hyde Park Spanishtown Creek Civic Association and Historic Hyde Park Neighborhood Association neighborhoods. Those two groups applied to the Historic Preservation Commission on May 4, 2021. The commission held a public hearing on August 30, 2022 and recommended approval, the Hillsborough County City County Planning Commission staff found the request consistent with the Tampa Comprehensive Plan, City Council held a public hearing on December 8, 2022, and the expansion was approved at the second reading of the ordinance on January 5, 2023. Hillsborough County describes the 2023 expansion as taking in more of what was formerly Dobyville.

Inside the district, the City's Architectural Review Commission reviews development against the Hyde Park Design Guidelines, and the City lists its Architectural Review and Historic Preservation staff at (813) 274-3100, Option 3. A second step concerns the Doby house: the City's Local Designations in Process page says the c.1912 Doby House is being considered for Tampa Local Historic Landmark status and meets the criteria of Section 27-257 of the City Code, but that page was last updated January 9, 2025 and does not record a final Council decision.