Ruskin, Florida

The town and college were named after the English writer and social reformist John Ruskin. Ruskin, a utopian, founded the Guild of St George, a celebration of workmanship that underpinned the Arts and Crafts movement of William Morris. Ruskin was a passionate educator. In 1907, Dr. George McAnelly Miller, a former Chicago prosecuting attorney and professor, and former president of Ruskin College in Trenton, Missouri, relocated his family to the area, along with his brother-in-law Albert Peter Dickman's family. They purchased land and started to set up homes, a sawmill, and a school. Addie Dickman Miller, Dr. Miller's wife, founded a post office on August 7, 1908. This day is recognized as the official founding day of the town. The Ruskin Commongood Society platted Ruskin on February 19, 1910, and filed the plat on March 9, 1910, in the Hillsborough County Court House, with lots for the college, the business district, two parks, and for the founding families, with only white people allowed to own or lease land in the community. Albert Dickman's house, finished in 1910, on the banks of the Little Manatee River, is one of the few structures left standing from the founding of Ruskin. The Millers began a new Ruskin College in 1910, with Dr. Miller serving as president and Adeline Miller serving as Vice President. Continuing with the college's former practices, students worked a portion of each day as part of their education and as a way to pay for tuition and board. It offered three years of preparatory classes, after which students could attend the college, taking classes in art, drama, language, literature, music, shorthand, social sciences, and speech. At the peak of the college's prosperity it had 160 students. By 1990, changes to the downtown had occurred. The end of the traditional Ruskin Days parade (due to rising costs) and a great fire that wiped out the popular Thriftway supermarket and adjacent furniture, hardware and MC Topps department stores changed the landscape of the town center. At present, Ruskin continues to grow with new commerce and housing developments. U.S. Route 41 is now a four-lane road connecting Ruskin to Tampa, as does Interstate 75, which has an exit at Ruskin. It had a very active chamber of commerce until 2011 when it merged with the Apollo Beach Chamber to become the South Shore Chamber of Commerce and moved from Ruskin to Apollo Beach. Ruskin is the seat of the South Hillsborough County Government Center and has a branch of the Hillsborough County Public Library System. In 2009, the Dickman family donated the land where the new Ruskin Campus of Hillsborough Community College was erected, across the street from Earl J. Lennard High School. ==Geography==

Ruskin is located in south-central Hillsborough County, on the north side of the Little Manatee River. It is bordered to the north by Apollo Beach and to the east by Sun City Center. U.S. Route 41 passes through the center of town, leading north to Gibsonton and southwest to Bradenton. Interstate 75 runs along the eastern edge of Ruskin, with access from Exit 240 (State Road 674/College Avenue). I-75 leads north to Brandon and south to Sarasota. Downtown Tampa is to the north via I-75 and the Selmon Expressway. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Ruskin CDP has a total area of , of which are land and , or 7.80%, are water. ==Demographics==

}} 2020 census As of the 2020 census, Ruskin had a population of 28,620. The median age was 34.2 years. 28.4% of residents were under the age of 18 and 10.6% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 96.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 94.1 males age 18 and over. There were 9,343 households in Ruskin, of which 42.2% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 51.7% were married-couple households, 15.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 23.4% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 17.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. there were 17,208 people living in the community. The racial makeup of the community was 71.71% White, 9.12% Black or African American, 0.33% Native American, 1.33% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 15.28% from other races, and 2.17% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 42.87% of the population. There were 2,963 households, 29.8% of which had children under the age of 18 present, 53.6% were married couples living together, 10.5% had a female householder with no spouse present, and 30.0% were non-familial/roommate arrangements; single individuals comprised 23.9% of households, and 11.6% were single senior citizens (aged 65 or older). The average household size was 2.79 individuals; the average family size was 3.28 members. Within the community, the population was spread out; 26.5% were under the age of 18, 9.6% were from 18-24, 26.8% from 25-44, 21.1% from 45-64, and 16.1% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 104.1 males. For every 100 females above age 18, there were 102.9 males. The median income for a household in the community was $28,228, and the median income for a family was $32,404. Males had a median income of $25,787 versus $20,817 for females. The per capita income for the community was $12,943. About 10.6% of families and 17.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.9% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over. Recognizing the needs of Latino families, especially those of migrant farm workers, the Redlands Christian Migrant Association provides childcare services, community outreach, and adult and continuing education opportunities, as well as assisting in the Migrant Head Start program. ==Economy==

Amazon Governor Rick Scott and Amazon announced, in 2013, that Amazon would create 3,000 new jobs in Florida. At more than one million square feet, the Amazon warehouse is nearly ten times the size of the average Home Depot store. The first item, a character doll of Anna (from the animated film Frozen), arrived at the warehouse on September 18, 2014. In 2014, Amazon spent $46 million on Kiva robots for the Ruskin facility. In 2016, Amazon announced it would add an on-site training center for employees to enroll in college courses. ==Arts and culture==

The Big Draw The annual BIG DRAW-Ruskin began in 2008 to mark the 100th anniversary of Ruskin as a community whose founders were influenced by the writings and philosophy of John Ruskin. It is inspired by and linked to the international Campaign for Drawing first initiated in Great Britain to honor John Ruskin. THE BIG DRAW-Ruskin celebrated the vision of Ruskin who believed in drawing as a tool for understanding and knowledge and promoted the importance of the arts in education and community life. The 2008 Ruskin Community Mural was drawn by artist Michael Parker and The Amazing Community Mural Team. Parker with assistant Dave Bush recruited a community group of Ruskin teens and adults. The intergenerational group engaged in an intense collaboration of research, photography, and discussion of possible ideas. The final design concept was based on John Ruskin's social ideal that human happiness requires the mix of the head, heart and hand. Mural imagery includes references to historic Ruskin, the agricultural and environmentally sensitive setting across the bay from urban centers, development and movement to future possibility. Maynard Clark donated the mural site. The 2009 Community Mural-in-the-Round Project was coordinated by Josette Urso and the mural was painted on the Mary & Martha House building. Both the 2008 and 2009 projects were commissioned by the SouthShore Arts Council and funded by grants from the John Crawford Fund of the Community Foundation of Greater Sun City Center. ==Points of interest==

There are several locations in and near Ruskin some of which have been included in the National Register of Historic Places. • A. P. Dickman House • Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve • Cockroach Key • Firehouse Cultural Center • Fountain of Youth • Little Manatee River State Park • Trooper Kenneth E. Flynt Hwy. Highway 41 in Hillsborough County from Big Bend Rd (CR 672) to Little Manatee River designated by the Florida Senate in Memory of Trooper Flynt killed in the line of duty. • Leisey Shell Pits located in Ruskin by the Little Manatee River, is perhaps the world's largest ice-age fossil deposit, yielding tens of thousands of bones and several hundred species of Ice Age mammals. • George McA. Miller House ==Government==

The area is a part of unincorporated Hillsborough County. It is administered by the Board of County Commissioners. Ruskin is the location of the SouthShore Regional Service Center for Hillsborough County. The SouthShore Community Resource Center, administered by the County, provides social services in Ruskin. There are two branches of the Tampa–Hillsborough County Public Library System in Ruskin: the SouthShore Regional Library and the Ruskin Library. Residents may use any library in the system. Library cards are free to residents. Ruskin is also home for the National Weather Service (NWS) Forecast Office labeled "Tampa Bay Area - Ruskin". This forecast office is responsible for the area from Levy County in the north to Lee County in the south and extending in as far inland as Sumter, Polk, Hardee, DeSoto, and Highlands Counties. It also is responsible for weather forecasts and severe storm warnings for the western Florida coastal waters from Cedar Key to Bonita Beach and out which includes Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor. There is an NEXRAD weather radar site featuring dual polarization doppler radar and aviation terminal forecasts are also done at this office. ==Education==

In 2014, the J. Vince Thompson Elementary School opened in Ruskin. It is the first LEED-designated school in Hillsborough County. The campus adjoins Lennard High School and Hillsborough Community College SouthShore campus. The Hillsborough Community College SouthShore campus is located in Ruskin. It is LEED-certified Gold. It includes the Lennard Collegiate Academy. On October 30, 2014, Gannon University, based from Erie, Pennsylvania, announced that it would offer graduate health professional programs at a new campus in Ruskin. The site was chosen to meet increased demand for high-quality graduate education in disciplines that served the rapidly expanding health care sector of the Florida economy. ==Media==

WPHX—101.9 FM The Phoenix The Phoenix is the Ruskin community radio station, WPHX-LP (101.9 FM), transmitting from the Firehouse Cultural Center in Ruskin, which began broadcasting on August 17, 2015. Observer News In 1963, Evan Mixon purchased a weekly shopper and began a Ruskin family business that grew to include The Observer News (which had begun in 1958) and combined the two papers into The Shopper & Observer. The Observer News, a weekly newspaper reports news of Ruskin and wider South Hillsborough County has been a locally owned source of community information for many years. ==Notable people==

• Clarence Anglin and John Anglin, bank robbers, escaped from Alcatraz in 1962. • Aaron Carter, singer • Willa Ford, singer and actress • Kathleen de la Peña McCook. library science professor • Addie Dickman Miller co-founder of Ruskin College • Diontae Johnson, American Football wide receiver for the Carolina Panthers ==See also==