Brandon is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States.

On January 20, 1857, John Brandon arrived at Fort Brooke (now Tampa) from Mississippi with his first wife Martha, his seven sons, and their seven slaves.

In 1890, the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad came through the area, encouraging the people of New Hope to build a depot on Moon Avenue.

Since then, Brandon has grown in spurts, beginning with the first general store opened by Dan Galvin on the corner of Moon Avenue and Victoria Street.

At the time, Valrico began to develop to the east as Victoria's son Lovic moved there and opened a general store.

The center of town remained at Moon Avenue and Victoria Street, where the train depot, post office, school, and grocery store were all located.

World War II was an interesting time in Brandon, with little growth, but a definite edge as they had the food they raised on their farms.

A drug store and soda fountain at the corner of Parsons Avenue and Hopewell Road quickly became a popular teenage hangout.

In 1956, Hopewell Road was connected to Adamo Drive, which made access to Tampa easier, thus turning Brandon into a bedroom community.

In the next few years, Kingswood Elementary School, the Brandon Public Library, and many housing developments, shopping centers, and golf courses further fueled or reflected the influx of new residences and businesses.

By the 1970s, growth was causing traffic congestion, as approximately 430 commercial and service businesses, three malls and a population of 40,000 were all contained within a 6-mile (10 km) radius.

On September 27, 1986, Interstate 75 began to bring traffic through the Brandon area, dramatically changing the community and helping its population reach nearly 58,000 by 1990.

Unlike Tampa and Pinellas County, Brandon will typically have a few nights below freezing each year due to its greater distance from the coast.

Brandon, like the rest of the Tampa Bay area, receives abundant rainfall, around 44 inches (1,100 mm) of rain annually.

Brandon is the birthplace of Beef O'Brady's, a family-oriented bar and grill chain restaurant with locations throughout the southeastern United States.

In 2011-2012, the Hillsborough County Fair made its permanent home here on a plot of land on a rural part of State Road 60.

[21] The library shares a building with Center Place Fine Arts and Civic Association, however, both organizations remain autonomous in operation.

The existing site is constrained and offers limited options for building expansions to both the library and to on-site parking, which is currently inadequate for the number of customers who visit the facility.

As a result, the Board of County Commissioners approved funding for the acquisition of a new site to relocate and expand the facility.