ROGERS HOTEL

Location: Tampa, FL

Proprietor: Garfield Devoe “G. D.” Rogers, Sr.

Garfield Devoe “G. D.” Rogers Sr. was born on January 23, 1885, in Thomaston, Georgia. Rogers parlayed his serial entrepreneurial talents into a brilliant career as hotelier and philanthropist. As owner and operator of the Rogers Hotel, he became one of the most prominent figures in Central Florida during the time of racial segregation.

Rogers was raised from humble beginnings. He had minimal education, having only completed the third grade. He moved to Fitzgerald as a young man and made a living dipping turpentine, but he dreamed of a better future. In 1905, with no money, he began his long journey from Georgia to Central Florida.

In Bradenton, he partnered with a former colleague, Allen Jones, and operated a dry cleaning and tailoring business where he crafted custom suits for $13.50, the first of many profitable ventures for the ambitious entrepreneur.

Rogers later earned licenses in real estate and mortuary science, and he and his wife, Minnie, opened the first Black-owned funeral home in Manatee County. He fought to establish facilities that would accommodate African Americans, such as Lincoln Academy, the first public school for African Americans in Manatee County.

In 1933, Rogers became president of Central Life Insurance Company, a company he helped establish. During his tenure, the company grew to a million-dollar enterprise selling insurance policies to African Americans. Rogers also invested in a beachfront resort for African Americans near Daytona Beach.

Involved in the National Negro League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Urban League, and the Negro Business League, Rogers became a civic leader and advocate for equal rights for African Americans. He would also establish Bethune-Cookman College and serve on its board of trustees for thirty years.

G. D. Rogers died in 1951. His funeral procession traveled nearly fifty miles, cascading through Tampa’s neighborhoods and communities before reaching a small Methodist church in Bradenton.

Perhaps one of Rogers’s most noteworthy contributions was securing land for a community park in Tampa for African Americans. Today, that park is the historic 18-hole Rogers Park Golf Course.

In April 2013, a bust of Rogers was erected along the Tampa Riverwalk in his honor.

Sources:

White, Dale. “G. D. Rogers Paved the Way for Many,” Herald Tribune, February 13, 2003.

Wikipedia, “Garfield Devoe Rogers Sr.,” last modified July 11, 2024, 19:54 (UTC).

Images courtesy of Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library.