Hurricane History: 1921 Storm Hits Crescent Beach

Ellie Bunting • September 1, 2022

It has been almost a month since our lives were turned upside down when Hurricane Ian came ashore on our barrier islands. The damage done on FMB is almost impossible to comprehend. Landmarks and homes that dotted our island for years are no longer standing. Driving down Estero Blvd, it is difficult to determine where you are without these familiar homes and other landmarks that gave us a feeling of stability.


Over the past month, there has been much anguish, anger, and acceptance as residents begin the difficult task of starting over. At times it seems impossible. Many questions are being asked: How will we rebuild? What will the island look like post Ian? Will we lose our funky beach feel? Will the developers swope down and buy up all the damaged buildings changing the face of the beach forever?



I am sure these same questions have been asked before as our island has seen its share of hurricanes for over 100 years. This is the first in a series of blog posts discussing the other storms that have wreaked havoc on our island. No matter how bad the storm turned out to be, the Beach residents faced the destruction head on and rebuilt. I feel confident that this will be the case again because Beach people are resilient, and the love they have for the island will withstand any category 4 or 5 storm. Let’s begin by going back 101 years to October 1921, when a no name storm hit Tampa causing damage up and down the west coast.

Imagine what life was like for the 62 residents who lived on what was then called Crescent Beach in 1921. Prior to that year, the island was accessible only by boat. The one place to stay once you arrived on the island was the Winkler Hotel at the end of Pompano Street. However, once the bridge was built in 1921, the Real Estate Boom began on Crescent Beach. In fact, things were going so well that the Fort Myers Press stated in a headline, “Crescent Beach Center of Most Intense Development in Florida Today.”



After the bridge was opened, it was not uncommon for 200 cars to cross in a single day bringing 1,000s of visitors to the island where they would drive on the beach, enjoy the casinos, and bath in the warm gulf waters. Unfortunately, the boom was interrupted when a low pressure system was observed in the western Caribbean on October 17, 1921. Five days later, a Category one hurricane had formed with winds of 81 mph. By October 25, the storm had intensified into a Cat 4 with winds up to 140 mph.

Although the storm came ashore a little north of Tarpon Springs, the damage done to Fort Myers Beach was great. A storm surge of over 10 feet swept over the island demolishing docks and piers, sinking ships, and flooding homes and businesses. Damages to homes, buildings, bridges, and docks totaled more than 3 million dollars (1921 dollars). In 1921, the Sanibel Island which is now famous for its pristine beaches and seashells was best known for its fruit and vegetable crops. Sanibel grapefruits were being sold all over the country. Tomatoes grew so well in the calcified soils they fetched $1.50 a piece in New York City. The Gulf overtook the land, drowning the fruit and vegetable farms which never recovered.

The storm hit with such force that much of the coastal topography was altered forever. In Lee County, the storm was responsible for carving out Redfish Pass, which connected the Gulf of Mexico to Pine Island Sound. Another island swept away by the storm surge was Passage Key, a little north of Redfish Pass. This 60 acre island was designated as a wildlife sanctuary by President Roosevelt in 1905. This key once housed lush vegetation, a spring-fed freshwater lake, and over 102 species of sea birds. Today, Passage Key is little more than a sandbar that is submerged most of the year.

The few structures on the island at that time suffered damages. The Seminole Sands Casino and bath house were ruined along with several cottages. The road leading to the island from Bunch Beach was washed away. The hurricane can be best remembered because it washed away the tomb of Koresh (Cyrus Teed). After the storm had abated, the tomb was gone. However, by January of 1922, most of the storm damage had been repaired along with the road and the bridge.



After the hurricane, the beach development continued unabated. Phone service finally came to the area in 1922 with a pay station installed near the home of the bridge tender. It cost 25 cents to make a call to Fort Myers. A little later, a second phone was installed in the Seminole Sands Casino. By May of 1923, Thomas Philips had rebuilt his dance pavilion and bath house. By June, the road from McGregor to the beach was under construction.

 Gulf Heights Subdivision, Watson’s Subdivision, Venetian Gardens, and Gulf View Plaza were all developed after the storm. Two more canals were created called Canal Grande and Rio Del Lido.  By 1923, the island had finally recovered from the 1921 storm. Unfortunately, another storm was to hit three years later in 1926.

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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