HISTORIC BOCA GRANDE
(Lee County) and (Charlotte County)
FISHING VILLAGE TURNED RESORT
BOCA GRANDE, on the dual county island at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor, is best
known as America's tarpon fishing center. Other than a small phosphate export
port, Gasparilla Island was famous for its fishing plutocrats until the construction of
a private toll bridge by Robert Baynard in 1955 and the discovery of the isolated
island's charms by successful Tampa Bay area professionals who could build
expensive beach villas a few hours from metropolis.
THE SOUTHERN BEACH is the 13 acre Gasparilla Island State Park. You'll have
to walk down the beach to the beautiful GASPARILLA ISLAND LIGHTHOUSE
(1890) and its matching keeper's house. By the parking lot is a little seaman's
chapel, popular for waterside weddings. The island's pride, at the corner of Fifth
Street and Palm Avenue, is the: GASPARILLA INN (1912), a large pale yellow
frame Victorian hotel with a Classical portico and a colony of cottages and rooms
built around the golf course.
An Arcadia phosphate executive Peter Bradley allied with James F. Gifford,
President of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railroad, to build the luxury
winter resort. It's hotel registrar may read like a "Who's Who", but you won't
get to read it for low key privacy is the rule here.
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE is at the end of the block and on your
right is the POST OFFICE. On your left is FUGUTES (1916), the town's
mini-everything store founded by Jerome Fugate Sr., and visited by
everyone sooner or later. Across Fourth on the right is the famous BOCA
GRANDE RAILROAD DEPOT (1910), an impressive two story structure
which now houses antique and gift stores and an ice cream parlor/restaurant.
The brick structure with the arcaded loggia was the last depot for the
Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railway.
As you cross over the Boca Grande Causeway, you'll begin to notice that
time seems to move at a slower pace. The world you're used to, the one filled
with fax machines, voice mail and fast food it all disappears. What you'll
find once you cross the three small bridges leading to Boca Grande, is a
seven-mile island which retrains the "Old Florida" lifestyle that fosters
relaxation and an environment of tranquility.
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