Courtesy Naples Historical Society

The original 16-room Naples Hotel in January 1906. For a mere $3 a day, guests were provided room and board.

Courtesy Naples Historical Society

A rendering of the Naples Hotel, with the cupola and boardwalk included.

More All

• It’s Christmastime at Palm Cottage
• Rod Mackenzie, taking music by storm
• You Review Movie: John Augustine

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Share and Enjoy [?]

Picture 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 offshore, on slightly elevated land, there is a small, three-story building, with a porch across the front and a cupola on top. This was Naples in 1890, and that structure was the Naples Hotel.

The 16-room hotel was built in 1888 by the Naples Company, of native pine. For $3 per day for a room and board, you stayed on the second floor in one of the 16.5-square-foot bedrooms, 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, and a large parlor, dining room and a card room.

When the grand opening was held on Jan. 22, 1889, 20 guests attended, including Rose Cleveland, the president’s sister, who signed the register first. The register recorded not only guests, but also the daily temperature, birthdays, and the type and number of fish caught. The hotel, known as “Haldeman’s Clubhouse,” was the social center for guests to meet and 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 Haldemans, who built their own house, as did a half-dozen others. These cottages, close to the pier and hotel, 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. The public can still visit Palm Cottage today.

All meals were served in the hotel. With no markets, and boat service only three times a week, it was a feast of what you caught, killed or picked up. That could be anything from quail, deer, turkey, or turtle, to snook, mackerel, mullet, oysters or clams. You either grew or picked wild 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. Adult entertainment included charades, recitations, debates, cards, and piano music, for singing and dancing. It was relaxed, good fun amongst red plush armchairs and other assorted, unmatched furniture in the parlor.

By 1890, between mid-January and mid-April, 50 to 60 guests could be expected for the season.

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 as now, was growth.

References: “Florida’s Last Frontier,” by Charlton W.Tebeau; “The Founding of Naples,” Ron Jamro and G.L. Lanterman; “The Timepiece,” Vol.V, No. 1, 1977; Vol.XIV, No. 1, Sept., 1987; “Naples Now,” Doris Reynolds; “Naples-on-the Gulf,” Virginia Dean.

---

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 more than 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 to 4 p.m. Requested donation is $8. Information: 261-8164.