Forest Hills is a neighborhood partially within the city limits of
Tampa, Florida
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and ...
, United States, with the northern portion located in unincorporated
Hillsborough County near
Lake Magdalene. In 1926 a golf course and club house was built there. In 1949, "Babe" Zaharias bought the clubhouse and golf course, and may have lived in the clubhouse for a time. She moved to a house nearby in 1954. In 1956, she died of cancer in Galveston, Texas and the course closed.
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The area was mainly a citrus grove until residential development began in the 1950s and 1960s. A developer from Miami wanted to buy the golf course land, but the City of Tampa decided to buy it and restore it. In 1974 the course was reopened. Since then it has been renovated, the courses were rebuilt and an irrigation system added.[
In recent years, some of the older, smaller homes in Forest Hills have been replaced by bigger homes of larger square footages. This has been particularly the case with properties located around the lakes and ponds in Forest Hills located west of North Boulevard and north of Country Club Drive. The area, essentially close-in suburb of Tampa city proper, remains popular with both new arrivals to the Tampa area and native Tampans alike.
Forest Hills still contains the golf course named after ]Babe Zaharias
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. She won two gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Summer O ...
, a public golf course owned by City of Tampa
Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough County ...
. The neighborhood has its branch post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
with a ZIP Code of 33612. The population was 4,734 at the 2000 census.
The neighborhood was designed in 1926 along with the golf course (originally called "Golfland Country Club") and remains to this day largely as designed back then.
Education
The schools serving this area are as follows:
*Forest Hills Elementary
*Lake Magdalene Elementary
*Adams Middle School
*Chamberlain High School
References
External links
Babe Zaharias Golf Course Website
Babe Zaharias Golf Course in Tampa, Florida brings back plenty of memories
Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida
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