Celebrating 100 years on Estero Island

Ellie Bunting • December 16, 2021

1921-2021

Before 1921, the only way to access the island was by boat. This limited development but did not detract people from taking a boat and enjoying a few days on the beach. 


When the toll bridge to the island was finally finished in May 1921, the population on Fort Myers Beach grew to 62. The real estate “boom” of the 1920s was in full swing around the state. Now that our island was accessible, development was inevitable. 


 This posting celebrates four properties that have survived 100 years on Fort Myers Beach: Silver Sands Cottages and the Gulf Shore Inn are still in operation today. The Davison’s “We’re Here” cottage is now serving as the Estero Island Historic Society’s Museum. The cottage known as “Pinecone” located at 3320 Estero remains at its original location and is still being enjoyed by the owners and renters.


The Estero Island Historic Society will hold its open house celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the
We’re Here Cottage. Join us on Saturday, December 18 at 10:00 AM and visit the historic cottage decorated for Christmas. We will also have a bit of entertainment and a chance to purchase some homemade goodies at our bake sale. Rumor has it that the famous rum balls will be available for sale.


Silver Sands Cottages

Thomas Phillips was a wealthy inventor from Maryland who put his mark on the island in many ways. In 1921 he opened “Silver Sands” which became the first cottage court on the island. Phillips offered four palm thatched cabins to overnight visitors. When the Depression hit in the 1930s, the Silver Sands Cottages were owned by the Lea family and served as a beach retreat for visitors from all over the country. In the 1940s there was a rent freeze, and the summer rates were in effect all year. At that time, you could rent a cottage for $1 per night or $5 a week. Today, the resort is still in operation.



Phillips is also credited with digging the first canal on Crescent Street in 1921. He created Eucalyptus Park in the 20s where he sold 20 foot lots for a “very low price.”


Gulf Shore Inn

According to Rolfe Schell in his History of Fort Myers Beach, during June 1921, the beach was crowded. There were over 100 people bathing at one time and the cars were speeding up and down the beach. All these people were most likely hanging out in front of the casino and bath house that Phillips had constructed on the Gulf. The casino was known as Pete Nelson’s “Crescent Beach Casino” when Estero Island was known as Crescent Beach.


The Casino offered visitors the use of a bathhouse, swimsuit, and towel. It also sold hot dogs and hamburgers to visitors parked along the beachfront. Later, Phillips added a gambling casino with a dance floor. After the 1926 hurricane, a restaurant was added, and In 1930, rooms were built above the restaurant, and the name was changed to “Gulf Shore Inn” making this a popular destination for winter visitors. During the 1940’s, The Gulf Shore Inn was home to officers stationed in Fort Myers during WWII. The building was damaged in the 1944 hurricane, but repairs were made, and the Inn remained in operation for many years. 


In 1997 “The Cottage”  was acquired and opened as an indoor/outdoor bar with deck adjacent to the original Gulf Shore dining room. The name was changed to the “The Gulf Shore Grill.” Today the original building and the cottage are still being operated as a restaurant and bar.


The Pinecone Cottage

Although the Davison Cottage was built in 1921, it was destroyed by the 1944 hurricane and rebuilt using much of the same materials on the same beach front lot at the end of Mango Street. Another cottage that was also built in 1921 is located at 3320 Estero and is known as the Pinecone Cottage.


Originally part of the Robert Gilbert homestead, lot #11 was sold to William Case in 1911. Case was one of the first “developers” on the island. He created the “Case Subdivision” after purchasing a portion of Gilbert’s homestead. 


Case sold the lot in 1915 to Minnie Thompson of Massachusetts. Thompson owned the lot until 1920 when she sold it to Friend Dudley Case, possibly a relative of William Case, the developer.


The house was built in 1921 by Friend Case who lived there until 1925 when his wife died, and he sold the home to Elmer Hough. Elmer Hough was a well-known engineer and state senator in West Virginia before moving to Fort Myers in 1923 where he became involved in the local community and served as a two-term mayor beginning in 1926. 


Hough died in 1939 and his widow, Florence Bolton Hough, sold the home to Ester Anne Power. Power owned the home from 1939 until 1941 when she sold it to Elizabeth Smith.



Smith owned the home until her death in 1963 when it was sold to Dan and Yvonne Griggs.  In 1967, the Griggs sold the home to Clarence C. Kent and Neal S. Kent. The Kents then sold the house to the Comparettos in 1972.  The house is still in the Comparetto family who use it as a vacation home and rental property.


We’re Here: The Davison Cottage

Kim Davison first came to the island by boat with his father, who was a surveyor. The Davisons had a house in Fort Myers, but, in 1921, they built a small cottage on the beach at the end of Mango Street. The cottage served five generations of the Davison family. For many years, the cottage was the home of the San Castle Kindergarten which was operated by Kim’s wife, Sue. The cottage was destroyed in the 1944 hurricane, but the family was able to save the lumber and rebuild their beach home after the storm.



In 1995, the cottage was moved from the beachfront to its present location at the end of Bay Road where it houses the Estero Island Historic Society’s Museum. The museum has displays, archives, and a collection of old photos showing the island’s original cottages and bridges.

The Gullah Heritage: From Sea Islands to Florida

By Ellie Bunting • December 27, 2024
In January, the speaker for Estero Island Historic Society’s public meeting will be Martha Bireda, director of the Blanchard House Museum of African American History and Culture of Charlotte County. Ms. Bireda is the great-granddaughter of Queen Evans Andrews, a pioneer who came to Punta Gorda in 1897 from Charleston, South Carolina. She will share stories of the Gullah culture and of her visits with the Gullah people who live on James and Johns Islands. Having just visited the Georgia and South Carolina Coasts, I thought this might be a good time to do a bit of research into the Gullah culture in anticipation of our January meeting.

1921 Tampa Bay Hurricane

By Ellie Bunting • October 8, 2024
Repairing the St. Pete pier after the storm. Florida Archives. As we prepare to run from another hurricane, it might be helpful to reflect upon the 1921 “Tampa Bay” hurricane which hit the Tarpon Springs/Tampa area on October 28, 1921 This was the first major storm to hit the Tampa area since the “Great Gale” of 1848. We can draw a few parallels between this hurricane and what we are now facing with Milton. In 1921, the weather forecasting was not what it is today; rather, the forecast was based on observation sites which reported breezy and cloudy conditions around a low pressure system that was organizing off the coast of Honduras on October 20 and 21. By October 22 and 23, the area of low pressure began to intensify. Winds reached tropical storm force at the observation sites. The sites reported thunderstorms and cloudiness across the Caribbean. 

Labor Day Hurricane 1935

By Ellie Bunting • September 1, 2024
Searching for survivors on Upper Matecumbe Key after the storm. Photo Credit: Creative Commons In the late summer of 1935, the citizens of the Florida Keys were in the depths of the Great Depression. Key West, once a prosperous port city, had declared bankruptcy. Residents were struggling to live on an average monthly income of $7. The city needed a plan to survive so it was decided to rehab the old buildings and re-create Key West as a tourist destination. The government saw this as a way to help the jobless World War I veterans who had been affected by the economic downturn. The vets would be paid $30 a month plus free room and board to come to the Keys and build the bridges and roads that would be needed to support the Key West plan. The men were housed in flimsy shacks built on the shoreline. Residents of the Keys warned that this housing would never survive a hurricane, but their warnings were not heeded. The government plan in case of a storm was to send a special train from Miami to evacuate the vets if a storm approached. Like many plans, this one was not thought through very well. The railroad officials insisted that they would need several hours of lead time to get a train ready and on its way to the Keys.  It was in late August 1935 that a tropical wave came off the coast of Africa heading across the Atlantic towards the Caribbean. At this time, predicting storms was not a science. With no satellite images or hurricane hunter planes, meteorologists were pretty much shooting in the dark with only a newly developed radar to help them predict when or where a storm would hit.

Who Was Jack DeLysle?

By Ellie Bunting • September 1, 2024
Who was Jack DeLysle? I had been reading about him in different articles as I was doing research on the early days on the island. I had come up empty except for one cryptic note I found that he “left the island under mysterious circumstances.” Yesterday, I was going through copies of the Sand Paper that were donated to the historic society and found an article by Jean Matthews that was about Jack DeLysle. This is what I learned about the mystery man who played a pivotal role in the early development of the island. Jack and his brother, John, first appeared in Southwest Florida after their ship ran aground at the moth of Gordon’s Pass. When Sheriff Frank Tippins arrived to investigate the incident, he found 320 boxes of “Soap” that turned out to be whiskey. The brothers had apparently picked up the moonshine in Alabama and sailed to Tampa, then Key West, and finally to Cuba. When they returned to Florida, they were caught in a storm and the ship was wrecked. “Captain” Jack DeLysle claimed he was in the British Army; however, he and John were arrested and turned over to the Feds. Both men were found innocent by a jury in Tampa and Jack returned to Fort Myers where he was into many different endeavors. Although he wrote poetry that he published in the local paper, DeLysle is best known for his efforts to raise money to build a bridge to Fort Myers Beach. He joined the Crescent Bridge Road Company where he met E.E. Damkohler. Damkohler was trying to raise money to build a road from Miner’s Corner to the Island. DeLysle saw potential in Crescent Beach ( old name for Fort Myers Beach)being developed into a tourist mecca like Miami Beach. He purchased property in Case Subdivision and built the Seminole Sands Casino. DeLysle’s casino had a game room with tables and slot machines, changing rooms, a dance pavilion, and a restaurant.

Al Capone and FMB?

By Ellie Bunting • July 3, 2024
Did Al Capone spend a week on Fort Myers Beach back in 1929 or 1930? According to Jean Matthew, Capone and some of his lawyers may have stayed at the home of Dr. Baker Whisnant in Seminole Park. The group consisted of two attorneys and their families, including their children, and of course, Mrs. and Mrs. Capone. Matthews states that the two lawyers who were with Capone rented a beach cottage at the same time they rented the home in Fort Myers. Rumors began spreading around town that Capone and his gang had been seen hanging round in downtown Fort Myers. The cook who worked at the Seminole Park house while the gang was staying there stated that every morning a strange man would appear and eat breakfast at the house, arriving from the beach. Was this mysterious stranger really the infamous Al Capone? The cook’s description of the man sounded like Capone who also had a deep scar on the left side of his face. The strange man never went out during the day. He would stay home and play with the children until evening when he would leave. Other people in town also recall this stranger who may have been the famous gangster. A young gas station attendant who was working at the Standard Oil station on McGregor waited on the stranger. When he was caught staring at the gangster, Capone is reported to have told him, “You know who I am, but kept it under your hat.” Mrs. Whisnant, the owner of the Seminole Park home, said that the group acted strange from the beginning. They didn’t register at a hotel. They immediately sought out the realtor who was in charge of the rental and were brought to the home immediately. They took only a brief time to look over the house before asking to move in in immediately. They didn’t want a phone. They asked about the mail but insisted that their business was all transacted by telegraph. When the group left, and the owner was cleaning up her house, she found many cases of empty liquor bottles. The residents of Seminole Park told her that the renters were not very friendly and stayed to themselves.  After reading this in the Sandpaper, I decided to do a bit more research to get to the truth about Al Capone’s visit to Southwest Florida.

Times Square Through the Decades

By Ellie Bunting • June 14, 2024
The Tip Top was a popular hangout for teens back in the day.

Hurricane Season is Upon Us: Predictions

By Ellie Bunting • June 3, 2024
As we are all still recovering from Hurricane Ian, the news from NOAA that was released this week is a bit intimidating. Forecasters estimate 17- 25 named storms this season with 8-13 reaching hurricane strength. Of these, forecasters predict that 4-7 would be considered “major.” This is not great news, and it gets worse. Florida has a 96% chance of being impacted by one or more of these named storms. If we look at only hurricanes, the probability of a hurricane hitting the sunshine state drops to 75%. This drops even more to 44% when we look only at a ‘major’ hurricane hitting our state.

Preserving Our Environment: The Battle for Estero Bay

By Ellie Bunting • May 7, 2024
While doing research for Lost Icons, I came across a quote in the News-Press that I have cited several times in other articles and presentations. Written in the late 1970s, this quote seems to bring the past and the future together quite nicely: “Nobody really wants to stop progress, but there is an increasing awareness that the island is in danger of becoming a polluted paradise.” Over fifty years ago, the paper stated that Fort Myers Beach was at a crossroads. The 70s were a time of rapid, uncontrolled development with over 68 condos being developed in a single decade. This led residents to vote to incorporate the town so we could control our own destiny and stop the over-development of our island. The newly born town elected its first town council who worked very hard to create a comp plan that would guide our development and preserve our island lifestyle. This plan was completed in 1995 and had served us well until Hurricane Ian damaged every building on the island. Now that we are in the rebuilding mode, we are once again at a crossroads: Do we stick to the comp plan and turn down the developers who want to build higher and bigger? So far, the council has been carefully considering all arguments and is making logical decisions trying to keep as close to the comp plan as possible. The council and residents need to tread carefully to make sure, in our efforts to build back, we spend time anticipating the unintended consequences of building back bigger. One very good example of this is the recent attempt of two legislators to take back 225 acres that are part of the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve. (More on this in another post). This was not the first time our beautiful back bay was threatened. Let’s go back to the 1960s when a group of concerned residents decided to take action to preserve the beauty of our back bay. Back to the Future

Home Buying Today

By Ellie Bunting • April 27, 2024
Is It Getting More Affordable to Buy a Home? Over the past year or so, a lot of people have been talking about how tough it is to buy a home . And while there’s no arguing affordability is still tight, there are signs it’s starting to get a bit better and may improve even more throughout the year. Elijah de la Campa, Senior Economist at Redfin, says : “ We’re slowly climbing our way out of an affordability hole, but we have a long way to go. Rates have come down from their peak and are expected to fall again by the end of the year, which should make homebuying a little more affordable and incentivize buyers to come off the sidelines.” Here’s a look at the latest data for the three biggest factors that affect home affordability: mortgage rates , home prices , and wages. 1. Mortgage Rates Mortgage rates have been volatile this year – bouncing around in the upper 6% to low 7% range. That’s still quite a bit higher than where they were a couple of years ago. But there is a sliver of good news.  Despite the recent volatility, rates are still lower than they were last fall when they reached nearly 8% . On top of that, most experts still think they’ll come down some over the course of the year. A recent article from Bright MLS explains : “ Expect rates to come down in the second half of 2024 but remain above 6% this year. Even a modest drop in rates will bring both more buyers and more sellers into the market.” Any drop in rates can make a difference for you. When rates go down, you can afford the home you really want more easily because your monthly payment would be lower. 2. Home Prices The second big factor to think about is home prices . Most experts project they’ll keep going up this year, but at a more normal pace. That’s because there are more homes on the market this year, but still not enough for everyone who wants to buy one. The graph below shows the latest 2024 home price forecasts from seven different organizations :

Treasure and Dead Bodies

By Ellie Bunting • April 26, 2024
Did WC Zimmerman Discover a Lost Treasure on What is Now San Carlos Island?  Although I really enjoy researching and writing about local history, I am also a sucker for local legends and lore, so when I was given an article taken from a 1897 issue of a newspaper called Fisherman and Farmer, I knew I had to do a deeper dive.
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