House Put Together Again

YBOR CITY - When Ernest Fernandez stops by to check out the rehabilitation of his grandparents' historical boardinghouse, he hardly recognizes what it has become.

"It's like a new house in an old shell," said Fernandez, 69. "It's kind of hard to look at it and not be yours anymore."

But still, he said, "I'm glad they saved it."

La Casa de La Gallega was home and livelihood to his family for more than 70 years, beginning when his grandparents Lucas and Ramona Fernandez bought it in 1918. Ramona was known as La Gallega, or "the lady from Galicia" in Spain, and Lucas was El Gallego.

The original owner, Ramon Cueto, is listed in city records as a cigar maker. The last owners were Fernandez family members Isolina Fernandez and Sylvia Sierra, who kept the boardinghouse going until 1990.

In recent years, the two-story, red-brick boardinghouse and other houses vanished from 14th Avenue as Interstate 4 was widened from four to eight lanes. But La Gallega is getting a second life at 1301 E. Columbus Drive.

With rehabilitation work nearing completion, the city is taking bids until Friday on what it calls the 1913 Cueto-Sierra boardinghouse, valued at $420,000. The first and second floors are remodeled, each with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen.

The property's salvation came from an unlikely source - the Federal Highway Administration.

The state and federal highway agencies paid nearly $300 million for construction and right of way on the I-4 project. An additional $10 million has funded the largest mitigation project in the federal agency's history, the relocation and restoration of 35 houses, many of which were sold by the city to first-time homebuyers.

The second phase could bring the total to almost 65.

The average cost of relocation and rehabilitation is about $500,000 a house. The boardinghouse was the only commercial structure moved, at a cost of about $1 million, said Elaine Illes, a Florida Department of Transportation consultant.

With federal approval, money from the sale of the relocated buildings goes into a preservation trust fund for projects within historical Tampa Heights, West Tampa and Ybor City. Sales revenue is about $4 million to date.

"That is unprecedented," said Illes, who has overseen the project since the expansion went on the drawing board in the 1990s.

It has a "ripple effect," she said, encouraging more preservation.

When it came to moving the boardinghouse, Iles said some were betting the structure would fall apart before the two-day trek from 1822 14th Ave. to Columbus was over. The house was partially wrapped in metal to hold it together. There was a leaky roof and flooring on the second level had to be removed.

"Termites did get into stuff," Illes said.

South-Co Building Contractors, which specializes in preservation, has done much of the work.

"Everyone can build a new house," employee Walter Pitcher said. "Trying to get something back together like this, that's fun."

Fernandez, a retired Hillsborough County school administrator, has documented the changes in photographs. His son Dennis is manager of the city's Historic Preservation Commission and is one of three city employees who will review the bids for the boardinghouse.

Ernest Fernandez, who lives in New Tampa, grew up next door to La Gallega. Initially, the city planned to pair his house and the boardinghouse, but a city lot on Columbus was chosen for La Gallega.

Plans were floated over the years to use the downstairs for classrooms, with teachers living upstairs. It was mentioned also for an artists' colony the city wanted to create.

"It's been through numerous things," Illes said.

On visits to the boardinghouse, Fernandez remembers which rooms were used by aunts, uncles and cousins. The downstairs was for family; the upstairs rooms were rented to cigar workers or new arrivals from Spain.

Boarders were generally young, single men. They were polite and courteous, Fernandez said.

"I never saw any drinking," he said. "No women ever came in."

There was a staircase in the hallway, and boarders came and went past the family's quarters.

"They would come from work, bathe and shower and go out to eat," Fernandez said.

Fernandez said his grandmother, who died before he was born, "ran a straight ship. In those days there wasn't any messing around."

His grandfather, who at one time cooked at the Columbia Restaurant, worked into his 80s. He never remarried.

"He cooked at the little restaurants near the cigar factories," Fernandez said. "That was his life."