Anna Maria Island

Bonner Joy

• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781467115070
• eBook ISBN: 9781439655450
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Anna Maria Island was once inhabited by Native Americans, but as the beauty became known to its first homesteader, George L. Bean, the island's destiny was to be a beacon to paradise. In spite of mangrove forests and throngs of mosquitoes, people came by boat to enjoy the white sand beaches and the turquoise waters of the Gulf of Mexico, with their cool onshore breezes and blazing sunsets. The Islander newspaper of the 1950s heralded, "Where life is good and the fishing is great." Anglers came from afar to test their skills against tarpon, the world's greatest game fish, and to hunt goliath grouper in the depths of Tampa Bay. Two modern bridges connected the island to the mainland in 1957, and with that the seven-mile-long island was on its way to becoming the jewel of Manatee County.

One

THE EARLY YEARS

Linking the fishing village of Cortez to Anna Maria Island and what would become Bradenton Beach, the first bridge to Anna Maria Island was built of wood in 1921. There is a sign on the bridge indicating the speed limit, 15 miles per hour, and traffic was limited to one direction at a time. The automobiles on the bridge are heading to the island, where the roof of the bathing pavilion is visible.

Visitors arrive at the Anna Maria Pier around 1924. The pier opened in 1911, a decade before the first bridge was built to the island and 14 years before the city incorporated. It was the focus of commerce for the small community at the north end, where steamers brought goods and visitors, many of whom paraded with their umbrellas to a bathhouse on the Gulf of Mexico at the opposite end of Pine Avenue. May 13–14, 2011, marked a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the city-owned pier.

Four women pose on the beach in Anna Maria in typical 1920s swim attire. In the background, a beach home is under construction, and at the water’s edge, pilings are evident. They may be seated on the bayfront beach near the Anna Maria Pier, judging from the surroundings. Most development on the island began on the bayfront around the pier landing.

Construction workers are pictured here erecting the Bradenton Beach Pavilion and Bathhouse. This two-story elevated wooden building had a large porch on the main floor and a stairway leading down to the beach level. Dimly seen in the shade under the porch are picnic tables on the beach level. The pavilion’s center portion had a dance hall and dining room. The owners had luxury apartments on the top floor.

The pavilion was constructed in 1922 at a cost of about $30,000. Each side of the two-story main building had men’s and women’s facilities for changing into bathing suits, each with 100 lockers. It soon burned down and was rebuilt at a cost of $40,000. The new structure lasted throughout the 1920s, but it, too, burned in 1929. In the early 1900s, the south end of Anna Maria Island and the bathhouse’s location became known as Cortez Beach.

People were attracted to the shore and the facilities of the Bradenton Beach Pavilion in the 1920s. They came in droves, wearing their Sunday best, ready for a day at the beach. They came for the sun and lounging. They came to play and swim. With little amenities along the beach on the island and a long day planned, the beach pavilion was the primary destination. It included restrooms, picnic tables, a dining room, and a dance hall. It had changing rooms and lockers. It was the go-to place before people had any other place to go on the beach. And Bradenton Beach and Bridge Street evolved with the pavilion.

People enjoy relaxing in the mild surf near the shoreline in Bradenton Beach, some jumping in the surf and from the diving platform—a challenge for the better swimmers. The platform was built in the 1920s near the Bradenton Beach Pavilion to provide recreation for beachgoers.

A Mr. Shumacher walks on Pine Avenue west from the bayfront end of the street toward the Gulf of Mexico in the 1920s. The street is now fully developed, with a variety of businesses, restaurants, and residences, including the Rosedale Cottage, on the right, now part of the Historic Green Village shops, and the Roser Chapel, now part of the larger Roser Memorial Community Church. The notes on the original photograph were made by Mabel Bean. (Courtesy of the Islander.)

Sunbathers—in various forms of early 1900s beach attire—enjoy the beach and having their photographs taken on Anna Maria Island. One can imagine many a family or class reunion at the beach or gatherings of friends on the shore, where the sun and the Gulf of Mexico waters were considered healing and rejuvenating.

A group walks on Pine Avenue toward the Gulf of Mexico in the 1920s. Thanks to the pier and the steamers that docked there, the beach development company had great success attracting people from Tampa to buy cottages. Before bridges and airports, the people who lived and worked in Tampa found their place in the sun on Anna Maria Island.

Anglers at the Anna Maria City Pier seated on the decking take a look as the fisher walking with his pole away from them toward the T-end has his bait stolen by one of two pelicans there looking for a handout. The scene is from the 1950s, with a billboard on the roof advertising the pier location to airplane passengers. The open-air buildings at the Tampa Bay end of the pier welcomed people arriving by ferry, and housed a bait shop and concession stand—long before a restaurant was added to attract people to the waterfront atmosphere. On a clear day, there was a view of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which opened on US Highway 19 in 1954 to connect Pinellas and Manatee Counties.

Four youths pose for a photograph at the beach in fashions typical of the time between 1...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1. The Early Years
• 2. A Sense of Place
• 3. Sunny Beach
• 4. Where the Fishing Is Great
• 5. Hollywood Comes Calling
• 6. Views from the Sky
• 7. Bridges, Piers, Steamers
• 8. Storm Season
• 9. Captured by the Privateers
• 10. One Island, Three Cities