We're bringing our history collection to you! Each of these photos from our archives is featured on a sign in one of our Charlotte County parks. How many will you visit?
South County Regional Park
The Hotel Punta Gorda opened in 1888 along the waters of Charlotte Harbor. The hotel attracted wealthy and notable guests from around the world, such as the Edison, Vanderbilt, and Colt families.
In 1924, Barron Collier bought the property and renamed it the Hotel Charlotte Harbor. It was sold again in 1956 and became known as the Charlotte Harbor Spa, "the Spa of Eternal Youth." This venerable landmark was lost to fire in 1959.
Port Charlotte Beach Park
Prior to 1954, the Port Charlotte Beach was known as Alligator Bay, part of the A.C. Frizzell Ranch. It was sold in 1955, giving way to the development of Port Charlotte.
To increase the attraction of its latest community, General Development Corp. added lifestyle amenities like Port Charlotte Beach. The beach park was added in 1972.
Englewood Beach at Chadwick Park
Englewood Beach was previously named Chadwick Beach after brothers Steve and Clay Chadwick, who platted the subdivision in 1926. The pavilion was the first building on the site, offering showers and dressing rooms to bathers for 10 cents. It also sold gasoline, kerosene, and groceries. Dances were often held there on the weekends. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1945. A new structure was built on the site and serves to this day.
Tringali Park
Florence Jerome Buchan, pictured around 1900, married Peter Eugene Buchan in 1904. The two were among the first settlers in the Englewood area. They built the iconic Buchan's Landing, where they lived above a general store and post office. Buchan's Landing was located at Dearborn Street and Old Englewood Road, where they had easy access to the water to receive supplies.
Carmalita Park
With our year-round tropical climate, Charlotte County has been a popular host to many sports and leisure activities. Baseball is no exception. Teams from amateur to professional have flocked to the area to enjoy our fields since the 1920s.
This photo, from around 1933, shows a baseball game underway on a field at Gill Street and Virginia Avenue in Punta Gorda. The outfield also served as a football field for Charlotte High School from 1931-1936.
Ann & Chuck Dever Regional Park
The Florida Highwaymen are a group of 26 African American artists renowned for their iconic landscape paintings. Facing segregation and exclusion in the 1950s, these self-taught artists would sell their paintings from their cars along the highways.
Years later, the Highwaymen's talent was discovered. The original members were inducted into the Florida Artists' Hall of Fame in 2004.
Randy Spence Park
In 1931, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer came to El Jobean to film Tarzan serials and a feature-length film. Access to the Myakka River and the vast Florida wilderness helped create the jungle scenes. The crew stayed at the El Jobean Hotel at the invitation of Joel Bean, its founder.
Bean installed track and siding to accommodate railroad cars full of jungle animals and film equipment. The company even brought its famous icon and trademark, Leo the Lion.
Harold Avenue Regional Park
Charles "Chuck" Taylor (1901-1969) was a professional basketball player. In 1921 he joined Converse Rubber Shoe Company as a traveling salesman and consultant. Converse added Taylor's signature to their new design and renamed them Chuck Taylor All Stars, known simply as "Chucks."
Taylor traveled the nation, offering basketball clinics and promoting the shoe. They became the best-selling basketball shoe in history and the official shoe of the Olympics from 1936-1968. In the 1960s, Taylor and his wife Lucille moved to Port Charlotte.
McGuire Park
Arthur C. and Patti Frizzell were ranchers and entrepreneurs who brought the first Brahman cattle to the area to improve their herd. The couple owned over 80,000 acres of land, used for cattle, turpentine, lumber, and various businesses in what was known as Murdock.
In 1954, Mr. Frizzell retired and sold most of the land. It was ultimately developed into Port Charlotte by General Development company and the Mackle Brothers, for whom Elkcam Blvd. is named. ("Elkcam" is Mackle backwards.) The first homes in Port Charlotte were occupied in 1956.
Bayshore Live Oak Park
The first bridge connecting the towns of Charlotte Harbor and Punta Gorda over Charlotte Harbor opened in 1921, but it was barely wide enough for two cars to pass. In 1931, the Barron Collier Bridge was opened as a replacement.
This image, from a 1950 post card, shows the bridge looking south toward the Hotel Charlotte Harbor in Punta Gorda. As the community's population grew, the Albert Gilchrist Bridge was added in 1976 to handle southbound traffic on U.S. 41. Northbound traffic continued to traverse the Barron Collier Bridge.
Harbour Heights Park
Charles Danforth, pictured on the right, was a lieutenant colonel with the Army Air Service. In 1920, he was sent to Carlstrom Field in Arcadia to train as a pilot. Danforth fell in love with the area and, in 1936, bought land along the Peace River at Shell Point. He named the property Shell Point Ranch.
The land was sold to developers in 1955. They created the Harbor Heights subdivision, renovating Danforth's home into its clubhouse. In time, the clubhouse became part of Harbour Heights Park.
Centennial Park
Charlotte County has been hosting beachgoers, like those pictured in this 1954 post card, since the late 1800s, when railroads expanded into the area. The Florida Southern Railroad arrived in Punta Gorda first in 1886, and it was followed by the Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railroad in Murdock and Boca Grande by 1907.
The railroads aided industry growth with the export of goods and the import of visitors and new commodities. In the 1950s, the area boomed with the development of Port Charlotte where residents and visitors flocked to the newly built paradise.
