Located south of Bloomingdale Ave. just off of Bell Shoals Rd., South Oak is one of the larger communities in the area. The community is located near Cimino Elementary, Burns Middle School and Bloomingdale High School.
The Brandon area was named after the arrival of John Brandon from Mississippi at Fort Brooke, which is now Tampa, in January 1857. Brandon first moved to the Seffner area with wife, Martha, and six sons.
In August 1858, Brandon purchased 40 acres of land near State Rd. 60, or present day downtown Brandon, and then 160 additional acres and named the land Brandon. With further development, modern day Brandon expands well beyond the 200 acres first bought by Brandon.
A few years later, the New Hope Church was built on Brandon’s land and aside from being the first church in the community, it was also the first school. Stower’s Funeral Home is one of the oldest buildings in Brandon and a famous landmark that was built by Brandon’s son, James.
The Brandon area now includes Interstate 75 to the west, Valrico to the east, Riverview to the south and Seffner to the north including zip codes 33509, 33510 and 33511.
South Oak residents who own their own businesses include:
-Tom Davidson, local honey for sale: 684-1774
-Roger Eha, Signature Realty Associates realtor: rogere ha@aol.com, 610-6080
-Peter A. Jacobson, MD internal medicine: 681-5702 or 634-5506
-Denise Schaller, Home Encounter, LLC property manager: 600-5090 ext. 110
For more information, visit http://southoak.web.com/. Certain areas of the Website are restricted to South Oak members only, so residents are encouraged to register a login and password to access all areas of the Website.
