New Free Exhibit Honors Plant City’s Pioneering Photographers Bill Friend & Gladys Jeffcoat

The Lee Building in historic downtown Plant City has been home to local businesses and restaurants over the years, but it is now the home to the Bill Friend & Gladys Jeffcoat Photography and Photo Collage Exhibit.

Friend and Jeffcoat were both local photographers in Plant City.

“Gladys started early in by riding her bike after school to Hollywood Photo Studio, where she learned quickly and soon felt she could manage her own business,” said local Plant City historian Gil Gott. “At 19, she accomplished this and set up her own shop in the Arcade on West Reynolds Street in Plant City. Her photos ranged from the ’40s to ’90s when she concluded her coverage of the Strawberry Festival.”

Over the years, Jeffcoat had accumulated more than 400 cameras, which now call the Lee Building home.

Friend was intrigued by photography, learning at Lakeland High School in the ’40s.

“He had a small job in Lakeland, but the breakthrough came when he entered the Marines in 1950 and was an official cameraman while stationed in Korea,” Gott said. “Returning to the states, he followed his brother, the station manager of WPLA radio in Plant City, and he started his own photography shop on East Reynolds Street.”

After Jeffcoat died in 2012 at the age of 86, the Plant City History & Photo Archives strove to protect Jeffcoat’s collection and was able to repossess the cameras, identify them, carefully box them and relocate the collection to the Lee Building.

“With more than 300 framed historic photographs by Bill and Gladys lining the public hallways of the Lee Building, a decision was made to highlight their industry,” Gott said. “The mural of Bill and Gladys’ photographs was created by local artist Amelia Bitting with the help of her father. It adorns the walls in the lobby area of the Lee Building along with Gladys’ cameras. The public is welcome to enjoy this new exhibit and relive some of the local history both photographers have captured over the years.”

The Bill Friend & Gladys Jeffcoat Photography and Photo Collage Exhibit is free and open to the public during the Lee Building’s operating hours of Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The Lee Building is closed on weekends. It is located at 110 E. Reynolds St. in Plant City.