TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa’s rich history is hard to miss, especially when you visit places like Ybor City. But what about those areas in the city where the history isn’t as obvious? There’s one Tampa neighborhood with a history that is just as rich as the recent development going on in and around it.

People who grew up in the close-knit neighborhood say they want those moving in to know what people sacrificed to live there.

Before Gwendolyn Henderson can even get the key in the front door of her childhood home, she’s met with offers to buy the place. But the anxious investors pale in comparison to some of her best and worst memories at her home.

“The last time I was here, we got my mother off the floor. She had probably been here on the floor about two days,” she said.

Her mother is in her 90s, and until recently, she lived in her Carver City home for decades.

“When my dad died in 1976 she used to, I don’t know why, I’m getting emotional but, she told me this story that she would dig in his recliner looking for change to make that mortgage payment and it was $55,” she said.

During that time, African Americans had very few options for where they could live and buy in Tampa. Carver City and Lincoln Gardens were two of those options. The neighborhoods were specifically for African American World War II veterans who were banned from living on base because of racist laws at the time.

“As the city began to develop and try to make downtown or Ybor the central place for the city, they wanted to push Black families and people out of the scrubs and other cities,” said Carver City and Lincoln Gardens researcher Dr. Lisa Armstrong.

Dr. Armstrong knows the history of the neighborhoods firsthand. Her grandparents owned a home in Carver City for decades.

She used what she knew about the community to help advance her college studies.

“When I started doing my research in this community, it was actually during my masters and I continued it during my dissertation,” she said.

She can tell you the good about the neighborhoods.

“Some of the people I’ve spoken to, they either inherited their homes, some people were gifted their homes as a wedding gift or gifted a lot to build a home,” she said. “And some families they just built their homes next to their children’s home.”

She can also tell you the bad about the area.

“It was very undeveloped at the time. Many people described it as an unofficial dumping site.”

And she can’t talk about this community without highlighting what she calls the ugly happening here.

“You have hundreds of racial demographics moving in, changing the voting powers of some of the people who have now been here since the late 1940s,” she said.

And while she wants to focus more on the beauty of the close-knit community, she fears new construction like this and the ever-present gentrification here is tainting that beauty.

“They built very strong relationships — very, very, strong support systems, and it’s worth remembering. When I see things like this now, I hurt for them because they continue to say, well, maybe it’s not for us,” Dr. Armstrong said.

It’s something that bothers Henderson, too.

“One day there was an article. A guy had brought about 35 properties in the community and I posted it on social media. And I said, 'Stop selling Big Mama’s house, I’m telling you, stop doing it,'” Henderson said.

It’s a plea from a Carver City and Lincoln Park native who wants to keep the community’s memory alive. It’s a plea she hopes reaches residents both new and old.