Perry G. Wall II

Perry G. Wall II (November 22, 1867 - January 25, 1944) was an American businessman and politician in Tampa, Florida.

He was the grandson of Judge Perry Green Wall, who had been a pioneer on Florida's west coast and then a judge in Hamilton County, Florida.[1][2]

Wall lived in Spring Hill, Florida.[3] He studied at East Florida Seminary in Gainesville, Florida, and Bingham Military School in Asheville, North Carolina.[2]

He was a partner in the Knight & Wall hardware business with Henry Laurens Knight in Tampa.[4] The two men founded the business in 1884.[4]

Wall was active in multiple civic and political groups with alliance to the Democratic Party. For two years beginning in 1897, he served on the Hillsborough County School Board.[5] He served on the Executive Committee of the white supremacist White Municipal Party[5] that effectively excluded African Americans from Tampa's mayoral elections for decades from 1910.

Wall was mayor of Tampa, Florida, from January 8, 1924, until January 3, 1928.[5] During his four-year term, Tampa experienced a building boom. Major projects under his leadership included the residential areas of Temple Terrace and Davis Island.[5] While construction had begun in his predecessor's term, the Gandy Bridge to St. Petersburg was opened while Wall was mayor; when constructed, this bridge was the longest automobile toll bridge in the world.[5] A 1926 photograph captured him at a baseball game while he was mayor.[6]

Following his mayoral stint, Wall was chairman of Florida's Committee on Taxation and Finance. He was then appointed as harbormaster in Tampa, serving from 1932 to 1936.[5]

Wall was married to Mattie Houston. Together they had two children.[5]

He died in Tampa on January 25, 1944.