Cape Coral

Chris Wadsworth, Anne Cull, Cape Coral Historical Society

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780738567716
• eBook ISBN: 9781439622759
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Many are surprised to discover that picturesque Cape Coral's history dates back further than the boom of the 1960s. Indeed, homesteader families were living a rough-and-tumble life in the Cape's wilderness for much of the 20th century. Still, there is no denying that the city took a turn with the arrival of Jack and Leonard Rosen in 1957. These visionaries brought their Gulf American Land Corporation to Southwest Florida and built a modern city from scratch. Model homes, roads galore, an airport, a police force, the Cape Coral Country Club, the Nautilus Motel, and the famous Rose Gardens-all rising out of the woods on the north shore of the Caloosahatchee River. Hundreds of miles of canals were dug so that nearly every home was on or near the water. Hollywood celebrities turned out to promote properties to Northerners looking for the good life in sunny Florida. It was one of the largest planned developments ever in the United States-and it was a rousing success.

Eight

DAILY LIFE BECOMING A CITY

In the first few years of Cape Coral’s existence, people of every age were living in the community, with more arriving every day. There were kids—one out of three families had young children—as well as teenagers, adults, and retirees. Daily life moved at a slow, sleepy pace for many, many years. Teens often derisively called their town “Cape Coma.” Nonetheless, it was a wonderful time and a close-knit community.

In 1960, the Cape Coral Shopping Plaza opened on the north side of Cape Coral Parkway. The community’s first—and for many years only—grocery store was located there. Elmer’s Market became an institution in the early Cape. The plaza also was home to Bill Smith Hardware and Appliance, a beauty and barbershop, a bakery luncheonette, a gift shop, a clothing store, and the town’s first medical clinic. Today the Cape Coral Shopping Plaza is still there, although it has been greatly expanded from its earliest incarnation. It is also no longer surrounded by open fields but rather by a dense, busy downtown shopping area.

Elmer’s Market opened in 1960 along with the plaza. The owner, Elmer Tabor, came to Cape Coral from West Virginia. At the time the store opened, there were only about 500 people living in the Cape. Tabor was concerned about the viability of the store and its ability to turn a profit. To that end, Gulf American agreed to subsidize the store until it could become profitable. This was both for the benefit of the current residents and a marketing tool for potential customers. Longtime residents recall that Elmer’s was only open during the day; there were no evening hours like today’s supermarkets. It carried a little bit of everything. In the mid-1960s, the store’s name was changed to Jack’s Suprex. A Publix supermarket was built nearby in 1965.

The famous Big John statue appeared in 1969, when the Hollingsworth family bought the store and renamed it Big John’s. The statue was reportedly made in Illinois and traded for a semitruck full of watermelons. The statue was shipped to Cape Coral in two pieces on a truck. During the journey, the truck driver misjudged the height of an overpass and knocked off the head. It went rolling down the highway. When the pieces of Big John arrived in Cape Coral, a fiberglass specialist was flown in to repair him on the spot. The Big John statue continues to stand watch over the Cape Coral Shopping Plaza, while the eponymous supermarket closed in 1986.

Powerful Hurricane Donna swept into Southwest Florida on September 14, 1960, and according to reports at the time, the eye passed directly over Cape Coral. Gulf American arranged for a school bus to take some residents to shelters on U.S. 41 near Fort Myers. The rest of the young Cape Coral community took refuge at the Nautilus Motel and Surfside Restaurant. Each family was given a room courtesy of the company. As the winds whipped around the buildings, time was spent mopping up water that leaked in around doors and windows. These photographs show some of the more serious damage caused by Donna to homes in Cape Coral. They come from a booklet produced in the aftermath by Joe Coleman Studios of Naples, Florida.

Much of the group gathered in the motel’s lounge, food and drinks were served, and Henry Kurtz led a sing-a-long on the piano. As the group finished a rousing “My Old Kentucky Home,” they saw it suddenly get much brighter outside. It was the eye of Hurricane Donna. Ultimately Donna did very little damage to Cape Coral. Five homes had serious damage, but most received nothing worse than torn screens and broken windows. No one was injured.

As there was little to do in Cape Coral during its earliest years, local residents were always looking for some excitement. This photograph shows a group preparing to board a Trailways bus to attend the Orange Bowl in Miami. Another photograph in the same series shows men carrying boxed lunches in old-fashioned cardboard boxes aboard the bus. The jackets the people are wearing shows that it was indeed around New Year’s when this picture was snapped.

The first baby born to Cape Coral residents was Nancy Lee Loveland, seen here as a young girl. She was born on July 19, 1960, in a Fort Myers hospital. Loveland is the daughter of Adm. Kenneth Loveland (Ret.) and his wife of DeSoto Court. Nancy joined a family of two sisters—Julie Ann, 21 months, and Ann, 17 years—and a big brother, Ens. Kenneth Wilder Loveland, who was serving on the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga in the Far East. Nancy Lee’s mother was sorry that she did not n...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• One - EARLY SETTLERS LIFE ON HARNEY POINT ROAD
• Two - ROSEN BROTHERS DEVELOPERS WITH A DREAM
• Three - AVIATION CAPE CORAL FROM THE SKY
• Four - EARLY AMENITIES PLACES TO GO, THINGS TO DO
• Five - ROSE GARDEN THE FAMOUS CAPE CORAL GARDENS
• Six - CELEBRITIES HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR ON THE CAPE
• Seven - WATERFRONT WONDERLAND LIFE ON THE WATER
• Eight - DAILY LIFE BECOMING A CITY
• ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION