Naples Florida History

The Olde Naples Hotel
By Nancy Webster, Naples Historical Society Docent

Picture this: a beautiful sandy beach, white and wide, with spindly pine trees dotting the shore, and spiky scrub palmettos just beyond. In a straight line from the 600-foot T-shaped pier off shore, on slightly elevated land, a small 3-story building with a porch across the front, and a cupola on top. This was Naples, 1890....and the structure was the Naples Hotel.

The Naples Hotel was a 20-room building, built by the Naples Company in 1888 of native pine. For $3/day, room and board, you stayed on the second floor in one of the fourteen bedrooms (16 ½ feet square), complete with chamber pot and washstand, bureau, and small table. (The third flood was the servant's quarters). On the ground floor, there was the office where the manager, Mr. Brockman, would greet you; also, a large parlor, the dining room and a card room.

When the "Grand Opening" was held on January 22, 1889, twenty guests attended, including Rose Cleveland, the U.S. president's sister who signed the register first. The register recorded not just guests but also the daily temperature, birthdays, and the name and number of fish caught. The hotel, known as "Haldeman's Clubhouse", was the social center for meeting guests to go surf bathing, shell collecting, fishing, or walking; boating and hunting were also available, with guides.

Who were the first guests? Most were friends of the Haldeman's (who built their own house, as did a half-dozen of others). These cottages, close to the pier and hotel and with wide shell-strewn paths, sprung up quickly. Now a house museum, Palm Cottage-Naples oldest house-was built in 1895 as a boarding house. Community members and guests alike can visit Palm Cottage today!

All meals were served in the hotel. With no shops and boat service only 3 times a week, it was a feast of what you caught, killed , or picked-up. It could be anything from quail, deer, turkey, or turtle, to snook, mackerel, mullet, oysters or clams. You grew or picked vegetables and fruits such as eggplants, cabbages, beans, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, oranges, grapefruit, bananas, avocados, lemons, and coconuts. Chickens were raised and pineapple plots abounded. Lacking refrigeration, food was cooked to be consumed, not saved. After dinner, the children enjoyed games, taffy pulls, BINGO, and singing. The adult entertainment included charades, recitations, debates, cards, and piano music for singing and dancing. It was relaxed, good fun amongst red plush armchairs and assorted unmatched furniture in the parlor.

By 1890, between mid-January and mid-April, fifty to sixty guests would be expected for the season....and it stayed small until 1915 when a wing was added to the hotel and more cottages were built. The "name of the game" in Naples, then and now? Growth!

Naples Historical Society is dedicated to the preservation of Naples history and heritage. The Palm Cottage house museum, a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places, has a second-floor photo gallery that will help visitors take a step back in time to when the Naples Hotel existed and to discover what life was like over 100 years ago. Palm Cottage is located at 137 12th Avenue South, in the heart of the historic district. Tour hours this time of year are Wednesday and Saturday, from 1-4 p.m. Requested donation, $8/person. Call for more information: 239-261-8164.

References: Florida's Last Frontier, by Charlton W.Tebeau; The Founding of Naples, Ron Jamro and G.L. Lanterman; The Timepiece, Vol.V#1,1977;Vol.XIV#1,Sept.,1987; Naples Now, Doris Reynolds; Naples-on-the Gulf, Virginia Dean.