Temple Terrace, FL

Temple Terrace began as a citrus-and-golf experiment beside the Hillsborough River. In the early 1920s, town planner George Young, golf-course architect Tom Bendelow, and citrus developer D. Collins Gillett designed a residential community around a course and a 5,000-acre grove. The place took its name from the Temple orange, a hybrid of tangerine and sweet orange, and incorporated on May 28, 1925. Riverhills Drive, laid out along the water in 1921, still links much of that early plan. The city marked its centennial in 2025 and now maintains a local historic-preservation program for its remaining 1920s structures. For 2020-2024, the median owner-occupied value was $334,800, median gross rent was $1,594, and monthly costs for owners with a mortgage were $1,743; 50 percent of occupied homes were owner-occupied. The river and city recreation facilities structure much of present-day community activity.

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The 10.39-acre Riverhills Park has a boardwalk, boat ramp, fishing access, trails, playground, picnic shelters, community garden, and birdwatching area. At the Family Recreation Complex, the aquatics area contains five pools and two sand-volleyball courts, alongside the larger complex's fitness, tennis, gymnastics, and senior programs. Temple Terrace Public Library traces its start to a volunteer-run room in a former golf pro shop in 1960; its current 20,000-square-foot building holds more than 100,000 volumes and 38 public computers. The library also operates a seed catalog that lets cardholders take home vegetable and flower seeds. Its July 2026 calendar ranged from baby and children's storytimes to creative writing, interview preparation, ukulele, board games, adult book discussions, and teen activities.