William "Dick" Carter remembers attending Port Tampa City Council meetings in the small white-stucco building at Interbay and West Shore boulevards.

"We had lots of meetings in that old building," said Carter, 78, who served on the council for two years before the town was annexed by Tampa in 1961. "It was very small ... but it served its purpose."

Crews are set to begin demolishing the former city hall, administration building and city library Tuesday because of mold and asbestos. 

Lisa Wilson remembers going to story time at the library in the mid-1970s.

"We would all sit in a semicircle and listen to the storyteller," she said. "There are so few buildings left of our history and our sense of community; it's so sad.

"It's very unfortunate it couldn't be used as anything else," the 35-year-old Port Tampa resident said.

The demolition will be completed by Wednesday at a cost of $11,326, including asbestos abatement, according to Kimmins Contracting Corp.

The city has no plans for the property, said Randy Crowder, real estate contract specialist.

Jill Buford, president of the Civic Association of Port Tampa, said she hoped the city would do something with the building, which had been left to rot.

"Now it's a big box of mold," she said. "For the old-timers, it's just another piece of old Port Tampa being removed."

The 1947 building, 8611 Interbay Blvd., isn't a designated historical structure.

But Carter's wife, Ethel, said it has sentimental value for her and other longtime residents.

"And I took my granddaughter there for story time," she said.