Friday, 31 October 2014

Learn Something About Naples Florida History

Posted by Unknown at 13:15
By Jony Mozen


There are some interesting historic facts Naples Florida visitors often don't know. Although there are several nice museums in this town, most people simply don't visit such places. If you would like to find out more about Naples Florida history, here are some interesting things you might want to know. So, the founders of this lovely place were John S. Williams and Walter N. Haldeman, back there in 1880s.

The entire area where this town is built on was occupied by the Caloosa tribe. The first white settlers were Roger Gordon and Joe Wiggins. They came here in 1960, but back then there were only swamps on this area. In any case, the coast is so lovely, especially the bay, that some people soon realized the value of this territory. Comparing this bay with the one in Naples, Italy, they concluded that this one is more beautiful.

One of the city founders, Kentucky U. S. Senator John S. Williams, was former Confederate general. His partner Walter N. Haldeman was businessman and the owner of Louisville Courier Journal. They formed the Naples Company and designed and launched their town building program. Their idea was to build the town that will become a tourist destination on the coast.

The first project was to build a T-shape pier six hundred feet into the Gulf of Mexico. Although everything was great in the beginning, for the next thirty years this town was only used as a winter retreat for a handful of wealthy families from Ohio and Kentucky. Without good roads and railway, the whole area was practically isolated.

Thirty years later, another visionary, Barron Collier, bought entire swampland, all in all more than one million acres. Today's town is mostly built on his land. He understood the importance of paved roads, and thanks to him, the Tamiami Trail has been built. He believed in amazing opportunities this entire area offered. Well, he was absolutely right.

A few years after that, in January 7, 1927, the first train, Orange Blossom Special, finally came. Every single day, at noon sharp, the whistle was blown. It is still blown today, although there are no trains here any more. The last one left in 1971. The Depot is completely restored, and today it is the home for many community organizations.

After The Second World War the town started to develop faster. Still mainly tourist resort, it was interesting to many famous people of that period. Greta Garbo spent her holidays here, as well as Gary Cooper and many other celebrities. In 1932, they got the library. In 1949 the first bank. Telephone came in 1945.

In 1932, famous Charles Lindbergh landed his plane here, accompanied by his wife, Ann, to get some supplies for their holidays. They were spending some time in this area. During the Second World War, hundreds of pilots were trained here for combat flying. After the war, the civil airport was established in 1953.

After the Second World War, this town finally started to grow and prosper. Today, this really is one of the richest towns not only in Collier County. This i the area with the largest percentage of millionaires. Tourism is still the most important thing here, but there are also real estate, banking and other important industries.




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