On Tampa's Franklin Street the Rialto Theatre anchors a block that drew a March 19, 2010 nomination in the Tampa Bay Times for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Here, storefronts and facades gathered public attention again when the block was recently nicknamed the “Yellow Brick Row” during the Better Block Project on North Franklin Street in January 2015. The Rialto sits within the National Register-listed Upper North Franklin Street Commercial District, its presence part of that officially recognized stretch.
The building’s design is credited to P.J. Kennard — and the record you can read notes that Philip F. Kennard was the son of Tampa-based architect Francis J. Kennard — a small family connection to the city’s architectural story. Stand where you are and feel how the Rialto is part of layers of local preservation and public projects, from that 2010 nomination to the community-driven moment in 2015. The row that earned the nickname Yellow Brick Row and the district beyond it wait for your next steps.