Around 1870, promoters likened the seven-mile stretch of sugar sand beach in Naples, Florida to that of the beautiful Italian peninsula of Naples, Italy. The area was originally the native home to the Caloosa Indians, and the first white settlers arrived in about 1887. Walter N. Haldeman, the owner of the Louisville Courier-Journal, purchased almost the entire town of Naples, and was the first to protrude a 600-foot fishing pier out into the Gulf of Mexico. The Naples Pier, though destroyed on three separate occasions, has consistently been rebuilt and still stands today. What really brought Naples into its own was the opening of the Tamiami Trail in 1926. This paved highway linked the state’s two largest cities: Tampa and Miami. Accessibility to Naples made it a playground for the rich, the famous, and certainly the intelligent. On a Sunday afternoon at the Naples Hotel, one could find the likes of Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, and Gary Cooper.
Today, Naples is still the playground for the rich, the famous, and the intelligent, except there are more homes, more mansions, and the prices have risen. In 1905, one could purchase a beach lot for $125. Today, Naples is still a bargain—if you like paradise. And this piece of paradise offers a variety of arts and entertainment, water recreation, dining and shopping, and activities for all ages. Some of the more popular things to do include strolling along Fifth Avenue South and Third Street in Old Naples where shops and restaurants abound. And there’s also Tin City, where unique and kitschy shops and eateries overlook Naples Bay. Naples has it all: fun and charm.
Collier County was one of a dozen new counties created by the Florida land boom of the 1920s. It is the state’s 62nd county and the third largest in total land area.
Vacationers and new residents alike are often surprised to discover that Collier County’s rich and colorful past actually stretches back many thousands of years.
Humans have lived here for centuries, beginning with the first hunters and gatherers who drifted down the Florida peninsula at the close of the last Ice Age in search of bigger game and warmer winters.
Remote and inaccessible, the first permanent settlements did not take root until the 1880s with tiny pioneer communities dotted along the coast at Everglade, Naples, Marco and Chokoloskee. Further inland, at Immokalee, sprawling cattle ranches became the principal means of livelihood.
Modern development began in the 1920s and by the end of the decade, railroads and the Tamiami Trail had pierced the rugged wilderness and unlocked the area’s enormous agricultural and resort potential. Florida’s first commercial oil well was drilled here in 1943, and the County’s cypress logging industry flourished well into the 1950s.
Collier County’s economy boomed along with its population shortly after World War II. In the short span of thirty years, the number of residents swelled from 6,488 to an astonishing 85,971 by 1980.
A vigorous economy and sustained prosperity from agribusiness, tourism, construction and real estate have made Collier County one of the fastest growing areas in the United States, and a pacesetter in defining Southwest Florida’s new lifestyle.
Tradition credits John and Madison Weeks as Naples’ first permanent residents. The brothers arrived in 1876 and settled along Gordon’s Pass – named for an earlier pioneer, Roger Gordon. The remote area began to attract interest during the Florida land boom of the late 1880s when a group of Tallahassee businessmen founded the Naples Town Improvement Company. The Naples property was surveyed in 1886, platted the following year, and immediately offered to distant customers at the bargain price of $10 a lot.
In 1887, the Naples Town Improvement Company was reorganized under a group of prominent Kentuckians led by Mexican War hero and U.S. Senator, General John S. Williams. Together with newspaperman Walter N. Haldeman, the owner and publisher of the Louisville Courier-Journal, they formed the Naples Company and launched an ambitious town-building program based on visions of profitable tobacco plantations, winter tourism, and future rail and sea commerce between Naples, Cuba and the major port cities along the Gulf of Mexico.
One of the Naples Company’s first improvements was a 600 foot pier that extended out into the Gulf. A wooden tramway ran along the pier to deliver supplies and luggage to the Naples Hotel, built in 1888.
By the summer of 1888, the new town of Naples consisted of a general store, post office, hotel, sales office, and a seasonal population of about 80 people. A half dozen beach cottages had also been built, all clustered near the foot of the pier, as well-to-do northerners treated themselves to the luxury of a winter home in Naples. Despite an optimistic beginning, sagging land sales and mounting debts collapsed the Naples Company just two years later. For the next thirty years, Naples remained a remote and private retreat for a handful of Kentucky and Ohio families who returned each season.
Years of isolation began to draw to a close in the late 1920s as roads and railroads penetrated the rugged Florida wilderness and reached as far south as Naples. The Seaboard Air Line Railway’s depot at Tenth Street and Fifth Avenue South was still only partially complete when the first passenger train – the Orange Blossom Special – pulled into Naples on January 7, 1927.
World War II introduced hundreds of servicemen to Naples when the U.S. Army Air Field (now Naples Airport) was activated in December 1943 to train pilots for combat flying. City residents provided airmen with a movie theater and weekly dances at the Naples Depot and the Beach Club Hotel. The airport was returned to the city and county after the war and was dedicated as the Naples America Airport in 1953.
Much of the groundwork for Naples’ impressive growth and development was laid after World War II. From a total of 390 people in 1930, the city’s year-round population more than tripled by 1950. Aqualane Shores, Port Royal and other residential subdivisions were developed. Naples opened its first bank in 1950 and a hospital in 1956. Under the Naples Plan started in 1948, the community raised money to fund parks and civic improvements, and to beautify the city with palms and flowering trees.
Disaster struck on September 10, 1960 when Hurricane Donna scored a direct on Naples and Collier County. Storm driven winds and waves washed away most of the Naples pier and caused over $25 million in property damage. The infusion of insurance money and low interest loans helped Naples residents rebuild and actually stimulated the city’s economy.
Since the 1960s, a steady increase in population and economic growth have made Naples the fastest developing part of Collier County and an even more appealing destination for new arrivals and seasonal visitors. Tourism and its economic benefits have surged ahead with renewed vigor, while construction, real estate and banking have become major industries.
Isolated for decades on the fringe of Florida’s last frontier, Naples today has grown into a modern and sophisticated city of over 21,000 citizens, and a community of opportunity and glowing civic pride.
