For five years, author Kristen Hare wrote obituaries about regular people for the Tampa Bay Times. Each one was a tiny and important history. She got to know a shuffleboard king, a drag queen and the Gerber baby.

And a few times, she learned about the people behind some of Tampa Bay’s historic hotels, motels and inns. The first was Willie Robinson Jr. He spent much of his adult live working to save his family’s rooming house, The Jackson House, which hosted Black musicians, artists and travelers during the Jim Crow era.

In 2020, she learned about the remarkable life of Mary Falkenstein, the matriarch of the family-owned Keystone Motel on Pass-A-Grille Beach.

Their stories got her thinking about their lives and businesses and how both helped shape Tampa Bay.

Eventually, that turned into nearly two years of reporting, researching and adventuring that helped her discover the many lives of Florida’s iconic and beloved hotels, motels and inns.

Pictured above: Keystone Motel (Image courtesy Danielle Micklitsch)