The 2 Brick Homes
Over 20+ years ago our dear friend and antique dealer, Marie Hall, told us a story about the 2 brick homes on 7th Ave & 25th Street. Marie told us that the homes were owned by a couple who also owned a funeral parlor in Tampa. The wife loved to collect Hummel Figurines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummel_figurines Her collecting grew so large that, the husband purchased the home next door to them just to hold the collection. Then the collection went crazy, 10’s of thousands of figurines, filling the whole house. After their deaths the collection was auctioned off. Marie said it could have easily been the largest Hummel Figurines auction in America.
Has anyone else in East Ybor-Gary heard of this?
From Fran Costantino
Yes, that was Mrs. Burks and those were her 2 homes that I sold way back when! Mr. Burks was huge in Democratic circles and guided the Black community in all civic affairs and held huge BBQ’s for candidates from those 2 houses! Mr. and Mrs. Burks never had children of their own but were “foster parents” to dozens over time. He gave her nothing but the best and she had a huge collection of Hummel’s and of Louis Vuitton luggage – every piece – even the big foot locker which she never used because she was afraid to travel! I loved that woman! She had a heart of gold! She moved to Gary near your house – I’ll go by and get the address for you – I don’t know if any of the children are still there! And I never heard her say anything about a funeral home as Mr. Burks had long passed away!❤️❤️❤️om