Home Inspector Oldsmar  

Contact us at 727-421-7650 or by email for any questions you may have regarding either a Home Inspection, Wind Mitigation Inspection, Pre-Sale Listing Inspection, Four Point Insurance Inspection, Roof Certification Inspection or a Home Maintenance Inspection. 

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About Oldsmar, FL

Aerial view of Oldsmar  

Geography According to the Census Bureau, Oldsmar has a total area of 9.7 square miles of which 8.9 square miles is land and 0.8 square miles of the total is water. There were only a handful of settlers in the area in 1913 when Ransom Eli Olds decided to purchase 37,541 acres on the tip of Tampa Bay from Richard Peters in what is now the present day Oldsmar.  Ransom E. Olds of Oldsmobile and REO fame embarked on undertook the task of turning the land in northern Tampa Bay into a bustling community. Olds paid $400,000 for the land. The town was originally named R. E. Olds-On-The-Bay. The name was later changed to Oldsmar. In the 1920's, the city built a water tower and water was pumped into it every morning and water containing sulfur flowed from the taps. A faucet with water flowing from St. Petersburg was installed near the railroad tracks where the residents came to bringing jugs to fill up with drinking water. The nearest stores were located in Tarpon Springs and Dunedin. Located between Tampa and St. Petersburg, Oldsmar was perfect for development. The long bridges across the bay had not yet been built and the shortest way from Tampa to St. Petersburg was traveling through Oldsmar. Oldsmar had been designed as a community for working people rather than for the wealthy. Olds utilized  surveyors and engineers from as far away as Boston to design the well-platted community, which was modeled after Washington, D.C., with trees lining the boulevards from Tampa Bay to downtown Oldsmar. A power plant serving parts of Safety Harbor, Dunedin, and Clearwater was constructed. There had been Advertisements placed in the Detroit papers regarding Olds development of Oldsmar. Olds used the slogan Oldsmar for Health, Wealth and Happiness. He tried to entice companies to move their businesses toOldsmar by offering cheap labor. Olds spent $100,000 drilling an oil well which only yielded water. It has been rumoured that oil was poured into the well each day to make it appear they had struck oil. The oil well is now capped and sits on the site of Tampa Bay Downs Racetrack. There were excursion trains which ran from Detroit to Oldsmar. In 1914, the first regularly scheduled passenger flight in the United States began operation  flying between Tampa and St. Petersburg. A yacht which served liquor imported from the islands would bring prospective home owners over from St. Petersburg. The Wayside Inn, a 60 room hotel was constructed in 1921. The bottom floor housed a grocery store, pharmacy and a hardware store. Olds encouraged the employees in his Michigan automotive plant to move to Florida.Olds, who was not a particularly well-liked man, had built primitive shacks without proper sanitary facilities for his employees. The first library in Oldsmar was started by the Woman's Club in 1919. In 1977 the Oldsmar Library was donated to the City and moved from the Woman's Club building to State Street in the City Hall Annex. The first school inOldsmar was located in a church at Buckingham and Jefferson Avenues. Another early school had one room for first, second, third and fourth grades, a second room for sixth, seventh and eighth grades, and high school was in the hall. TheOldsmar Post Office was located downtown in an animal display park which featured alligators of which all escaped during the hurricane of 1921. The original plans for Oldsmar included a golf course and a luxurious hotel on the bay but neither came to fruition. A saw mill and foundry which manufactured cast iron engines for tractors and grove heaters was established. The saw mill produced the Olds Chair (also known as the Oldsmar Chair) which was a sturdy chair made from either yellow pine or cypress. The Olds Chair was similar to the Adirondack Chair and sold throughout the Country. Olds provided the funding for Kardell Tractor and Truck Company to move into town. The company was changed to the Oldsmar Tractor Co., Olds had been hoping they could devise a machine to cut through the palmetto roots as building roads and clearing the land had become frustrating and expensive in Florida. The palmetto roots had been wimpervious to bull dozers and other northern machines. The City of Oldsmar had dairy farms and pepper, tomatoes, corn, and grape farms. In those days, it was not uncommon for cattle and hogs to run loose through City. A large banana plantation was established on Tampa Bay  however the winters were too harsh for it to flourish. The waters at the northern end of the Tampa Bay area had been pristine during the twenties and thirties. The fishing, crabbing and oystering and were great. The Towns people of Oldsmar could take their catch to the Rex Cafe to be cooked and large fish fries and dances were a weekly event. A casino was constructed by Tampa Bay which brought busloads of people fromHillsborough and Pinellas County  flocking to the Oldsmar Casino to spend the weekend. The Oldsmar pier stretched out a thousand feet into Tampa Bay, The pier was so sturdy and wide that two cars could drive side by side all the way to the end to pick up cargo. The Oldsmar Casino later changed its name to the Two Bits Club. The City of Oldsmar sits like a plateau where the land elevation never rises more than 20 feet above sea level. In 1921, Oldsmar was struck by a devastating hurricane of which pine trees were uprooted and most of the town was flooded by water levels rising 13 feet above normal levels. Some of the oldest homes built in Oldsmar remain on Park Boulevard. Many homes still standing after the hurricane were relocated by barge to St. Petersburg during the 1920s and 1930s. R.E. Olds had invested over 4.5 million dollars in the community in 1923. When Olds realized that Oldsmar was not growing as he had anticipated, he started liquidating his assets. Olds started selling all of the unplatted parcels of land. The racetrack had nearly been completed when he traded it for the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater. R. E. Olds left Oldsmar after suffering a financial loss of nearly $3,000,000. Olds had envisioned a city population of 100,000 which was only about 200 when he leftOldsmar. Harry Prettyman, a St. Louis promoter, continued to sell parcels in town after Olds had departed. He staged promotional gimmicks like Gold Rushes where pieces of gold were buried on a vacant parcels. In 1927 Prettyman was caught selling underwater lots, thus to avoid a scandal,  Oldsmar was renamed Tampa Shores. DemographicsAs of the census of 2002, there were 11,945 people, 4,536 households, and 3,329 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,335 inhabitants per square mile. There were 4,839 housing units at an average density of 542.8 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 90% White, 3.% African American, 0.29% Native American, 2.80% Asian, 0.16% Pacific Islander, 1.29% from other races, and 2.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.67% of the population. There were 4,536 households out of which 37.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.9% were married couples living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.6% were non-families. 19.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.00. The median income for a household in the city was $50,354, and the median income for a family was $53,142. Males had a median income of $37,083 versus $30,329 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,671. About 2.8% of families and 4.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.6% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over. In the City of Oldsmar, the population was spread out with 26.6% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 25, 35.2% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.5 males

Economy

Oldsmar is host to the office of Nielsen Media Research. The majority of the Nielsen Media Research employee's work inOldsmar, and the company's media measurement work originates from the office. The Associated Press said that theOldsmar building, was its nerve center. In 2003 the company moved into its Oldsmar complex and consolidated its employees there, with workers from Dunedin and other areas in Pinellas County moving into the Oldsmar building.

Fire-safe hotels and motels in Oldsmar, Florida:

• Aday Motel , 501 Bayview Blvd, Oldsmar, FL 34677 , Phone: (813) 855-4186
• Courtyard Oldsmar - Tampa , 4014 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar, FL 34677 , Phone: (813) 925-8887, Fax: (813) 814-7884
• Residence Inn , 4012 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar, FL 34677 , Phone: (813) 914-9400, Fax: (813) 818-9004
• Holiday Express Hotel & Suites , 3990 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar , FL 34677 , Phone: (813) 854-5080, Fax: (813) 854-5189
• Hilton Garden Inn Tampa/Northwest Oldsmar , 4052 Tampa Rd, Oldsmar, FL 34677 , Phone: (813) 891-9990, Fax: (813) 891-9980

• Strongest AM radio stations in Oldsmar