Exhibit Showcases 'Lost' M. Leo Elliott Drawings

Grant Rimbey, of Temple Terrace, regards M. Leo Elliott as Tampa’s finest architect to date.

Grant, a preservationist and project manager with architectural firm Elements, said Elliott’s work is admirable. He designed many of Tampa’s most recognizable buildings, as well as the original Temple Terrace Country Club, Club Morocco and the first eight houses in the city.

For years, Grant and Elliott’s granddaughter, Lynn Elliott Rydene, had been looking for several of M. Leo’s lost drawings.

“She remembered seeing them early on when she visited her grandfather’s office, but we both assumed they’d been lost since then,” Grant said.

Then, about a year ago, Grant’s mother was talking to her friend Carolyn Crakow, whose husband, Fred, worked at Carastro and Associates.

“Carolyn knew I was an architect with a keen interest in historic architecture and mentioned to my mom that Fred had found a bunch of rolls of architectural drawings at his office,” Grant said.

Carastro was doing work on their air conditioning units and the drawings were in the way, so they would probably throw them out if Grant didn’t want them, Carolyn explained.

Grant called Fred about the drawings.

“Fred mentioned there were quite a few rolls of old drawings by someone named ‘Elliott,’” Grant said. “I about fell out of my chair!”

Now, the drawings have been turned into a free exhibit presented by the Tampa Bay History Center. It’s called “The Built, The Lost, The Dream: The Architecture of M. Leo Elliott,” and it opens at Tampa Regional Artists’ Old Hyde Park Arts Center, 705 Swann Ave. in Tampa, June 10 from noon to 3 p.m. and June 11 from 2 to 5 p.m. The exhibition will then remain open from noon to 3 p.m. every day except Mondays through July 8.

Gaspar Properties, owner of the Palace of Florence, is the sponsor of the month-long exhibit.

“The collection has drawings of some of the finest buildings ever constructed in Florida, as well as those not constructed because of the Depression,” Grant said.

Grant recently posted a link on Temple Terrace Patch to this story by George Wilkens that appeared in The Tampa Tribune June 5. It has lots of detail about the discovery.

Grant also wrote his own story, which appeared in Creative Loafing May 23.

“This is big news for the Tampa Bay architectural community,” he said.