Naples Historical Photos
This south view of Naples c. 1950 shows the start of the dredge and fill operation for Aqualane Shores on the left. The Naples Hotel is also visible on the left, opposite of the pier. The top of the photograph shows the still-wild mangrove swamps that would eventually be transformed into John Glen Sample’s premier dredge and fill operation – Port Royal. (Courtesy of Nina H. Webber)
A view of the Pier from the white sandy beach that still stands today.
This rare photo shows the lower dock of the Naples pier, where guests could disembark at low tide. To the right is a small passenger boat used to ferry hotel guests from Fort Myers.
Forrest Walker shrewdly saw the potential of waterfront real estate in Naples and, in 1946, went into business with his sons James and R.L. Walker to begin implementing his idea of dredging and filling the mangrove swamps on Naples Bay to create canal-front house lots. They purchased the mangrove-covered land south of the Back Bay dock and began construction of the first dredge and fill operation in Naples—Aqualane Shores. Above, looking east, this 1950 photograph shows the formation of the first canals, with Gordon Drive on the lower left, intersecting with Twenty-first Avenue South. When the completed lots went on sale, the Walkers required $100 down and $50 a month until the lot was paid off. Lots on narrow canals sold for $4,000 while larger lots on Naples Bay sold for $7000. (Courtesy of Nina H. Webber)
By 1926, the Naples Hotel had expanded to include another large annex to the north, visible on the right. According to J. Arthur Stewart, “When they built and northern annex, it was a full three stories high, near the corner of Gordon Drive and Broad Avenue South, right behind the company offices,” known as the Community Building or Naples Company Building, visible on the lower right. (Courtesy of Nina H. Webber)
Across the street from Palm Cottage, in a prime location between the pier and the Naples Hotel, was The Pines, George M. Hendrie’s estate. John Hachmeister’s friends posed for this group photo taken on Christmas Day 1918. Andrew Weeks, who worked for Hendrie for 31 years, described Hendrie’s house as “big and beautiful, with a very large fireplace. The grounds covered a city block. At one time, it was the showplace of Naples.” Hendrie is standing at the back of the group.
The Naples Hotel officially opened on January 22, 1889. The more established town of Fort Myers, 35 miles to the north, offered only boarding houses for visitors, and a Fort Myers Press editorial noted pessimistically, “Fort Myers will trust to luck as usual.” Rose Elizabeth Cleveland, the sister of President Grover Cleveland, was the first guest to sign the new hotel’s register.
The December 1956 issue of Holiday featured a lengthy article about Naples, “Star of the New Florida Boom.” According to writer Bill Ballantine, the area just south of the city was “just a tangle of mangroves, until seven years ago, when it was tamed by John Glen Sample, a retired Chicago advertising executive, who, as senior partner at Dancer, Fitzgerald $ Sample, won a niche in the gray-flannel hall of Fame by siring soap opera.” Sample planned a community of luxurious homes on waterfront lots and required mandatory membership in the development’s private club, signaling to prospective buyers that residents would be handpicked. He strictly controlled development and banned flat roofs in his carefully planned community. Sample often drove suitable prospects through the community in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud or toured buyers onboard his 70-foot yacht. This c. 1949 view shows Gordon’s Pass on the lower left and the “tangle of mangroves” that would eventually become Port Royal. The Gordon’s Pas Fish Camp, just to the south of Sample’s property, was later referred to as the “pimple on Port Royal’s nose.”
Robert Fohl Jr. helped with the construction of the new golf course, noting, “The Bermuda grass on the fairways came from nearby orange groves. I carried Bermuda grass in a burlap bag on my shoulders and dropped it into a furrow behind a mule and plow, as did several other high school students, working during summer vacation.” In this 1931 photograph, Fohl hits the first shot on the course from a bare tee.
1915, Naples remained accessible primarily by boat- or airplane. The broad, flat beach and the rough Naples Hotel golf course often doubled as landing fields. The Naples pier is in the background.
ative Americans occasionally visited the new town of Naples. In 1888, Mrs. Lillie May Maynard gave birth to Pearl Ethel Maynard, the first white child to be born in Naples. In a letter written in 1930, she told her daughter, “The Indians used to come and see you and they brought you pretty shells to play with. We tried to get them to come into the shack. They would not, but after we were all in, one of them came and looked in the door while the other one kept guard.” The Maynard’s “shack” was on the beach and was actually a tent with boards “halfway up and a board floor.” George Osceola, John Malthers, and Gufney Tiger are pictured in this photograph probably taken near Ted Smallwood’s trading post in Chokoloskee.
The Tamiami Trail officially opened on April 25, 1928; nearly 13 years after construction began. This promotional flyer shows the key dignitaries responsible for sponsoring the opening celebrations, including Barron G. Collier, chairman; and Henry Rod and Thomas A. Edison directors. Three days of celebrations began April 24, with ceremonies in Fort Myers on April 25 and a county fair at the county seat of Everglades on April 26. In a letter written on May 11, 1928, to herald Florida’s new cross-state highway through the mysterious Everglades, Morgan ? wrote, “One week before the opening of the trail, I made a count of all the cars going north and south on the trail, and also a week after the opening. Three times the number of cars on the second count.” Naples was now accessible by car.
In a 1965 interview about this father, Barron G. Collier, Barron Jr. discussed the building of the Tamiami Trail: “There were many skilled engineers in those days who said building a road through the Everglades couldn’t be done. I can tell you this, if my father had not managed to establish very good relations with the Seminole Indians, that road would never have been built. White men with trucks and engineers could build the road, but they couldn’t clear the way for the road, and the Indians could. My father made a deal with the principle Seminole leader, Josie Billie, that when the road was built and his buses were running on it, any Seminole Indian could ride on the bus for free. And for a long time they did.” Note the Seminole man on the left with a pet fawn. A special invitation was also sent to the Seminoles to attend the Tamiami Trail opening ceremonies in Everglades.
In February 1932, Henry Timkin’s private ford Tri-motor airplane landed on the old golf course to take the wealthy roller-bearing executives to Tucson, Arizona. Timkin had built one of the first large beachfront estates in Naples in 1925 and was one of the few private owners of a Tri-motor, one of the largest passenger planes in production at that time.
According to Merle Surrency Harris, who watched the Orange Blossom Special pull into Naples on January 7, 1927, “There were many introductions and speakers, with lots of pomp and ceremony popular in those days. Bouquets were presented to certain ladies and when the speeches finally ended, a parade formed with the VIP’s and pretty girls in the lead, and the two bands providing music for the trip to the Old Naples Hotel.” Seaboard’s arrival was heralded by what the Collier County News called “the largest celebration in the honor of the opening of a new railroad line in the nation’s history.” Local dignitaries, including Mayor E.G. Wilkinson; Ed Crayton, president of the Naples Company; and Walter O. Parmer attended the banquet. The Collier County News reported, “The railroad president, the governor, the other members of the visiting party found many friends and acquaintances among the distinguished winter residents of Naples, and were shown the beauties and possibilities of the little gulf side city after pictures had been taken in the gardens of the hotel.”
After the new Beach Club golf course opened in 1931, private planes used the old hotel course as an “airport.” In this photograph, Grandma” Carroll and her grandson J.E. Carroll sit on the curb to watch all the action. According to Merle Surrency Harris, “One afternoon, while school was in session, a group of small planes landed there. This was such an unusual happening that most of the students jumped class to go see what was going on.”
In 1926, Robert Fohl Sr. climbed to the top of the Naples Hotel water tower and took the photograph of the fledgling business district of Naples. The large building in the center, on what is now Third Street South, was the first commercial building of Naples. Built in 1919 by the Naples Company to serve as a commissary, Capt. Charles Stewart managed it until the Robert and Lige Bowling purchased it in 9126. Leila Canant, who moved to Naples in 1928, remembered the kindness of the brothers who operated the only general store in town, “Since there was no bank in town, they would loan us money, record it on our grocery account, and then give us a 10 percent discount each month.” The Naples Company building (left), built c. 1921, was a multi-purpose community building, serving as a company office, church, and beginning in 1925, the town hall. The second school building, built in 1920 is at the top, just left of center. The small structure attached to the right side of the commissary is the post office.
1942 Naples Improvement Corporation brochure revealed, “It is a matter of record that Naples has never defaulted on any obligations. Today, its outstanding bonded indebtedness is only $24,500, being the unpaid portion of an issue to provide a dock and anchorage for yachts and pleasure craft.” The boating and fishing opportunities in Naples continued to attract a growing number of residents and tourists, and, in 1956, the Naples Chamber of Commerce reported, “an estimated 4,500 people make Naples their year-round home; with an additional 5,500 visitors during the winter season.” At the Crayton Cove traffic circle, B.W. Morris’s Old Cove Restaurant and Pub was ranked by the December 1956 issue of Holiday as “perhaps the most interesting restaurant in town.”
Gordon’s pass was named after an early squatter, Roger Gordon, who established a fish camp there around 1874. The pass was constantly changing and often too shallow for boats to pass through, even at high tide, increasing the importance of the pier for landing freight and passengers. An early fishing guide, Rob Storter, remembered at one point the pass was knee deep at low tide and there were “lots of pompano at that bar”.
