Believe it or not, at one time, a time not relatively all that long ago, the Interbay peninsula of what would become part of the City of Tampa, was so populated with the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, that a section of town came to be known as "Rattlesnake, Florida."
The area roughly bounded by Fair Oaks Avenue to the north, Everett Street to the south, Manhattan Avenue to the east, and Old Tampa Bay to the west, was almost entirely comprised of pine and palmetto thickets, a perfect habitat for this once common poisonous native Florida snake.
There were unconfirmed reports of rattlers in excess of 8' in length roaming those parts, as well confirmed specimens measuring up to 6' in the thousands.
Just as sure as nature creates something, along comes someone to exploit it. In this case an enterprising gentleman from Arcadia named George End made an industry out of what was once the bane to Florida's European settlers and later ranchers--the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake!
You see, Mr. End found a lucrative mail-order market selling meat from rattlesnakes. In 1937 he moved his wife and two sons to an area on Gandy Boulevard about a block west of West Shore Boulevard near Bridge Street. At this location End constructed a canning plant for rattlesnake meat. He added a novelty shop and a bar to the operation.
By 1939, End managed to talk the Federal Government into constructing a post office at this location.
On April 27th of that year, the "Rattlesnake, Florida" Post Office was established, although "Rattlesnake" was not itself an official municipality.
End helped fuel the local economy by hiring courageous souls to collect rattlesnakes from the plentiful palmetto thickets nearby for his canning business. In addition, End's bar attracted a lot of MacDill Army Air Base clientele, due to its close proximity to the base during the early part, of the Second World War. From the bar they could hear the work bell that beckoned them back from their break time.
In 1944 George End died as a result of being bitten by a rattlesnake that he was handling.
His efforts to use antivenom shortly after the bite proved to be ineffective.
One year later a gentleman named Earl D'Avignon bought the property that housed the post office and canning plant from End's widow.
D'Avignon converted the structure into an Imperial Gas Station and garage with a bar behind it. He later built a mobile home park behind that.
George End's widow, Ginnie, married Grover White and built a one-story building housing the "Rattlesnake, Florida" post office just west of its original location.
As neither she nor her two sons had any interest in the canning operation, novelty shop or bar, she sold the cannery and novelty shop to famed Florida reptile showman Ross Allen. Richard worked many years with Ross handling Rattlesnakes. Ginnie was the postmistress until her death in 1950.
Margaret Reintjes took over as Postmistress in the 1950s, she remembered only about 25 homes in the whole area.
On June 1, 1954 the "Rattlesnake, Florida" post office was officially renamed the "Interbay" post office.
That post office was relocated east of Dale Mabry Highway to 3630 Gandy Boulevard
I remember it well and visited it often.
Due to the explosive population growth of South Tampa in the 1970's and 1980's the "Interbay" post office was relocated yet again to a beautiful new facility located at
4520 Oakellar Street where it remains to this day.
I remember my mother recounting tales of the old "Rattlesnake" post office that she frequented in the 1940's and 1950's. But alas, it was removed by 1956 to make way for the second span of the Gandy Bridge, and for the four-laning of that roadway.
The new Gandy Bridge Eastern end near completion in this 1956 photo
I personally remember remnant thickets of pine and palmetto dotted throughout the South Tampa landscape with its diminished population of rattlers.
That was a much more sleepy-town time for Tampa, when summer thunderstorms rolled in each day between 4 and 5, cooling hot summer days down to delightful evenings where the cooling rains brought out the scent of summer flowers and cleansed the air by morning.
That has been replaced with concrete, condos, and traffic snarled roadways where heat, glare and pollution are the new climate.
But the unique showman spirit that was George End, a true Florida folk hero, lived on through others who had their own unique roadside attractions, such as
Ross Allen Entrance
Ross Allen Article #1
Tom Gaskins, Trader Frank and ultimately Walt Disney.
"Rattlesnake, Florida" was truly La Floridiana!
