Good Day to all! Here is my annual Halloween column. Hope to see everyone on West Marian Avenue Sunday evening at its corner with McGregor Street. The Punta Gorda Kiwanis Club will be handing out glow ropes while they last. Bring your “trick or treaters” by to get one. Did you know a local Halloween tradition began over…
Good Day to all and Happy Thanksgiving! Here is my annual “local Thanksgiving” column. Did you know a turkey, although common if you could get one, was not necessarily the centerpiece of early Thanksgiving celebrations in the area? Prayers of thanks and other ceremonies have been around for ages, but Thanksgiving as we know it, likely had its…
Good Day to all! Thank you everyone who helped make the Society’s first Low Country Boil a success! Did you know Charlotte County’s major thoroughfare running from north of I-75’s Exit 170 to the harbor was once a cattle trail? More evident when I was a youngster, as it was not the relatively straight thoroughfare it is today. …
Day to all! Did you know the First National Bank of Punta Gorda established by Edwin W. Smith was just the first “First”? Perry McAdow’s Punta Gorda Bank had gotten competition in 1912 when Smith’s Merchants Bank began operations. Its name was changed to First National Bank of Punta Gorda in 1919. A few years after Smith opened his…
Good Day to all! Did you know financial services offered by Bank of America, until Hurricane Ian, at its East Olympia Avenue and Nesbit Street location had their beginnings with Punta Gorda’s first locally owned bank? In late 1889, the city’s first “official” bank opened, operating from an office in West Marion Avenue’s “100 block” from the back…
Day to all! Hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend! Did you know the Allapatchee Lodge, owned by wealthy New York City businessman and hunting enthusiast, Louis Calder, opened in 1927? Calder made his fortune in the paper and pulp business starting at the age of 17 with Perkins-Goodwin Company. By age 30 he was a company director and…
Good Day to all! Did you know Nathaniel H. Decoster was an early settler in the Charlotte Harbor area? Born during the late 1830’s in Hartford, Maine and a schoolteacher by trade, he enlisted in the Union Army soon after the Civil War’s start, eventually serving as a second lieutenant with the 2nd United States Colored Infantry at Key…
Good Day to all! Before I get started with today’s column, something interesting came up after my previous column. You may recall a portion of it dealt with Nathaniel DeCoster’s Harbor View subdivision and its streets named after the tropical fruit trees he planted. However, if you visit the area today you will find, perhaps surprisingly, Drance Street, running…
Good Day to all! Did you know that John Bartholf, of New York City, was proprietor of the first known store in what became the community of Charlotte Harbor, residing there from 1876 to 1882? The store was located at the end of Parmely Street in what is today, Bayshore Live Oak Park. A Union army captain during…
Good Day to all! The 34th Freedom Swim is coming up July 4. Start time is 3:00 pm, Charlotte Harbor end of the bridge. See you there! However, things are a bit different this year due to last year’s hurricanes. There is no land access to water at the starting point, so folks should come by boat. In…
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