At the end of March in the Carrollwood Cultural Center we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Carrollwood. And Matt Jetton will be there to meet and greet you. Had developer Matt Jetton not had a grand vision and a master plan to turn 325+ acres of citrus nursery land into Original Carrollwood, he might have been just another home builder.

As it is, with the second phase of Matt’s plan, Carrollwood Village, added to his portfolio, Jetton is being celebrated on this fiftieth anniversary as an authentic visionary. Many men do not live to see their masterpieces completed, but Matt and his family have lived happily right in the middle of Carrollwood Village for many years now .

Twelve years ago the story of Matt Jetton was the first in the series of articles which became “Who’s Who in the Village. ”Then, as now, the Jettons — Matt, Mary and Mark — lived in Phase II of the Village, although once upon a time they were the first residents of this entire area, living on Carrollwood Village Drive. Daughter, Melissa, was a child then; now she is a married mother of two who lives in Original Carrollwood and teaches at Dorothy Thomas Exceptional School.

In the intervening years, the Jettons moved out to a horse farm they owned and their lives revolved around horse-racing. But those days are behind them now, and they’re happy to just share their home with a Golden Retriever named Elizabeth. On the day I visited recently, Elizabeth and Melissa’s visiting dog Katrina came to the door to greet me.

“Well, what’s happened in the last twelve years, Matt?” I asked. He grinned and his eyes twinkled,“I’ve just gotten older…and so has my dog. ”“That’s true of all of us, Matt. ” His grandchildren, Ashley and namesake Matt III, just tots when first I met them, are teenagers now and continue to give their grandparents and Uncle Mark great pleasure.

For the sake of you who didn’t read the first story, here’s the short story of the founding of Carrollwood Village:

A hundred years ago, more or less, Matt Jetton’s grandfather came to Tampa from Tennessee and helped to develop what is now known as Historic Hyde Park. Jetton Avenue, which runs through some of South Tampa’s most fashionable areas is named for that Matthew Jetton.

Our Matt Jetton attended Plant High School and the University of Florida, where one of his fraternity brothers was former governor Lawton Childs. As a young businessman, he started Sunstate Builders and in the late 1950’s had a vision of creating housing to relieve crowding in South Tampa. That vision materialized as Carrollwood, now Original Carrollwood, as its residents now insist upon! As luck would have it, the University of South Florida came into being about that time, and its faculty and staff eagerly flocked to the newly built Carrollwood to buy their homes. USF’s first president, Dr. John Allen was one of those buyers.

By 1968 there were 1000 homes nestled around the shores of Lake Carroll, and Matt Jetton was looking for new ground to break. Just north and west of Original Carrollwood was almost 2000 acres that seemed prime for Jetton’s next development. He planned for this one to be built around a 54-hole Golf and Country Club. Original plans called for two public schools, as well as a possible private school. Where Cypress Trace now stands, off of Burrington, there was an Equestrian Center. There were homes in all price categories: single family, condominiums, cluster homes, patio homes, townhouses.

Carrollwood Village was unique in that it was one of the first building projects in Hillsborough County to involve study and planning by such experts as traffic engineers, school planners and environmentalists, to determine its regional impact upon the community. When traffic engineers said,“of course, you’ll eventually need a traffic light here, and here, and here,” Jetton thought, “Here? In the middle of nowhere?” Today the traffic lights are just where they said they’d be someday.

Matt Jetton’s plans were so well-laid that even though economic pressures and an energy crisis led him to sell Sunstate Builders and leave the completion of Carrollwood Village to other builders, the Village remained true to its original concept. It has been a pleasure to re-tell the story of our founding father, Matt Jetton, and to have a good excuse to visit with him and his family once again. I hope to see you at Carrollwood Cultural Center on March 30 and that you’ll shake hands with my friends, the Jettons.You might say “thanks”, too!