Page 15 - Florida Sentinel 2-25-22

Black History: The History Behind The Names
Clara Frye Hospital
Plant City Bing House Museum National Landmark
The Plant City Bing Rooming House Mu- seum is located at 205 South Allen Street. It is the largest remaining structure in the Lin- coln Park Neighborhood of Plant City. Dur- ing its heyday, it provided overnight accommodations to Blacks during the seg- regation era.
The museum honors the late Mrs. Janie Wheeler Bing. Mrs. Bing married Elijah Bing, and was the mother of three children, and four grandchildren. Upon her death in 1984, at the age of 95, she willed the structure to her grandchildren. In 1999, her grandson, James Washington, deeded the property to the Improvement League of Plant City, Inc., as a Life Estate.
The Improvement League of Plant City, Inc. was formed in 1982 as a non-profit, grass-roots organization committed to im- prove and develop substandard and under- served communities of Plant City.
Rogers Park Golf Course
Garfield Devoe Rogers, also known as G. D. Rogers, left his Georgia home at 19. He had no college education or professional resume. He was young and sin- gle, one of 16 brothers and sisters.
As an adult, he be- came an astute busi- nessman and one of the most prominent figures in Central Florida. Through his business and social contributions and his children, his legacy has survived for generations. Rogers died in 1951.
Today, a street in Or- lando bears his name, a
G. D. ROGERS
public housing complex, a church, both in Bradenton, and the Rogers Park Golf Course in Tampa.
CLARA C. FRYE April 17, 1872 - April 8, 1936
Born in Albany, New York, Clara C. Frye was the daughter of Joe Draughan, an African American, and Fanny Lewis Draughan, a white teacher from England.
She obtained her med- ical training as a nurse in Montgomery, Alabama, and later relocated to Tampa.
After arriving in Tampa, Mrs. Frye learned that there were no medical facil- ities for African Americans.
In 1908, she trans- formed her home into a temporary hospital for Blacks, saving the lives of many who would have oth- erwise died for lack of med- ical care.
In 1923, she moved her hospital into a two-story, seventeen-bed hospital on the 1600 block of Lamar Av- enue. The City of Tampa purchased the hospital in 1928, and took over man- agement in 1930.
Mrs. Frye died six years later in poverty at the age of 64.
The Clara Frye Memo- rial Hospital, located on the bank of the Hillsborough River, was named in her honor.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2022 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY PAGE 3-B