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History of Naples,
Collier County
Transcribed and Submitted
to Genealogy Trails by Norita Shepherd Moss
Once, the only people to stroll Naples' seven miles of white, sandy
beaches, were the Caloosa Indians. The first settlers, Roger Gordon
and Joe
Wiggins, arrived in Naples in the late 1860's. A river and two inlets
still
bear their names.
Seminole Indians
in the Everglades
Throughout the 1870's and '80's, magazine and newspaper stories telling
of
the area's mild climate and abundant fish and game likened it to the
sunny
Italian peninsula. The name Naples caught on when promoters described
the
bay as "surpassing the bay in Naples, Italy."
In 1887, a group of wealthy Kentuckians, led by Walter N. Haldeman,
owner
of the Louisville Courier-Journal, purchased virtually the entire town
of
Naples. One of the first improvements Haldeman and the Naples Company
made
was to build a pier 600 feet into the Gulf of Mexico. The unusual "T"
shape
allowed large ships to dock easily. Despite being destroyed and rebuilt
three times, the pier's "T" shape remains.
1906 Naples Hotel
Naples quickly gained a reputation as a winter resort. Social life revolved
around the Naples Hotel, which played host to celebrities such as Rose
Cleveland, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr,
and
Gary Cooper. As the town of Naples went up, so did the price of property.
The cost of a beachfront lot soon reached $125.
In 1911, Barron G. Collier, who had made his fortune in streetcar
advertising, visited nearby Useppa Island. He was so taken with the
area
that he bought over a million acres of untouched swampland - including
most
of Naples. Collier believed that Florida's west coast could enjoy the
same
boom that the east coast was experiencing in the 1920's; but first it
was
necessary to bring in road and railroads.
Based on Collier's promise to help build the Tamiami Trail, in 1923
the
state legislature created Collier County, of which Naples is the county
seat. Collier spent more than $1 million of his own money to construct
the
Tamiami Trail, which opened in 1926 as the only paved highway linking
the
state's two largest cities - Tampa and Miami.
Collier died before he could see his dream come true, but come true
it did.
Today, Naples enjoys unparalleled prosperity. And the area's unrivaled
sport fishing, hunting, boating, sun bathing, and beach combing attract
people today just as it did a century ago.
Naples Fishing
Pier
Back in the early 30's, winter visitors were coming to Naples to enjoy
the
sun, the beaches and a small golf course located at the end of Fifth
Avenue
near the beach. It was in 1932 that Charles "Lucky" Lindbergh
landed his
plane in that area. Lindbergh and his wife, Ann, had a retreat in Sanibel
and would drop in to pick up supplies.
The first road, of sorts (shells in deep mud ruts), from Naples to Fort
Myers was completed in 1918 and is known today as Tamiami Trail North.
To
travel to Miami one would have to go north to Jacksonville and then
south.
In 1928, with the vision and resources of Barron Collier, the Tamiami
Trail
East was completed from Naples to Miami.
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