Take a look back at a business that thrived in Plant City for years.
Historic photos courtesy of the Plant City History and Photo Archive
There is a certain route to school that my children sometimes ask to take in the mornings, and they’ve nicknamed it the Ghost Town Way. This is especially fitting in the early darkness of winter, when the fresh fog has settled in low and thick, and the branches of the oak trees appear out of the mist at the last second as we drive by, reaching to grab at us.
There is another place here in Plant City, not far from downtown, that we have dubbed No Man’s Land, and if you know the spot I’m talking about, you’ll understand why. Just south of the city center, where S. Collins Street intersects W. Alabama Street, there’s a sprawling, flat swath of asphalt and concrete. Bristling with patches of weeds and remnants of structures long since forgotten, this vast, gray space sparked my curiosity and compelled me to stop by one sunny morning to take a look around.
The place gives me a creepy feeling, similar to our mornings driving through the mist. The enormous, paved surface is cracked and patchy, and there is trash scattered about. Most of the property lies to the west of Collins, with a smaller portion on the opposite side the street bordering the railroad tracks. I make my way over to what may have once been the foundation of a building wall. Stepping around the carcass of a large, black bird, I notice the front page of a discarded newspaper snapping in the breeze, as if trying to catch my attention. As I look around, all I can do is wonder: what in the world was here before all this nothingness?
Well, as it turns out, a lot. Looking at it today, it is difficult to believe that this concrete wasteland was once a bustling area of town, chock full of enterprise. And right there, in that very spot, stood the McGinnes Lumber Company, which had, over the course of 70 years, grown to become one of the largest suppliers of lumber to commercial builders in the Tampa Bay area. But let’s go back to where things all started.
The year is 1935, and it is the height of the Great Depression. Willard McGinnes, 25 years old and recently married, takes a chance and purchases a lumber yard from a widow’s estate with money borrowed from his mother. Over the next 65 years, under his direction, that lumber yard became one of the largest in the area, supplying builders for construction projects from Lakeland across to Clearwater.
A few weeks ago, I spoke to Willard McGinnes’s son, Dub McGinnes, to find out more about this family business. “I grew up working summers at the lumber yard in high school.” He laughs as he remembers, “When I was a kid, you had downtown, and the lumber yard was considered ‘way out of town’ down on Collins Street.”
“I did my own thing for a while, went off to the University of Florida and got married, but I came back with my family to join my dad in 1971. The company was supplying building contractors for new home constructions, and for a time, we had the largest market share in the Tampa Bay area.”
There were some challenging moments along the way. In 1966, the lumber yard caught fire. “I remember, it was a Wednesday night,” recalls McGinnes, “And it was a huge fire, but the fire department controlled it. There was an office across the street that the staff were able to operate out of. The business kept going, and they were able to build it all back.”
“I had the blessing to work with my father for many years until he retired, and then I took over the business and ran it up until the year 2000, when it was sold to a company called Carolina Builders. They were the largest supplier of building materials in North America at the time, and our company was their first acquisition in Florida.”
Dub McGinnes continued to work for them until 2008. Unfortunately, that’s when the housing recession hit full on, and the company decided to pull out of the state, reaching a deal with the city of Plant City to purchase the property. Almost 20 years later, the lot still sits, vacant, with barely a trace of all that existed.
Dub told me a bit about his dad, who was apparently quite well known around town as he was extremely involved in his church and community. Willard McGinnes was bestowed with Plant City’s highest civic honor, being named Citizen of the Year in 1954. He and his wife were both devoted members of First Baptist Church, and his efforts helped to found South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City, which opened in 1953. He went on to serve as chairman of the board for the hospital for over ten years.
When I asked Dub McGinnes if he recalled any of the other businesses that were in the area, he named a few, but one in particular came to mind. “Oh yeah, actually, the place that does memorial stones was there back then. Mr. Mack was the name of the guy who owned it at the time. He was quite the guy, a real character.”
“What he would love to do is have a burial plot for politicians, and drape their names over it, ones he might not care for. He would have fun with everybody about it and people loved what he would do there.”
The project to develop this area of the city, known as Midtown, has been delayed several times. Market conditions, such as high interest rates and increased construction costs, have impacted plans originally made in 2022, forcing the developer to pull out of the project in late 2025. The city will continue to evaluate possibilities for the development of this area in future City Commission meetings.
While I was unable to get a comment from the city of Plant City regarding specific plans for this site, I was informed that there is a meeting planned in February to discuss possible future uses.
Perhaps, the next time you find yourself driving by this once prosperous block, you will imagine how things once stood not so long ago or even dream of what could be. Our area continues to develop and grow, and new possibilities exist all around us.
