Entry 17a - The “Untold Stories” of Fort Myers

I enjoyed learning about the history of Fort Myers and hearing the views of older people who grew up there.  Fort Myers started out as a small military post, named Fort Harvey, with only a few hundred people and now it’s grown to have about 70,000 people.  It’s a newer city, incorporated in 1885, compared to most of the cities in New England.  The News Press has been around since 1884, but it was known as The Fort Myers Press back then.  Another company that has been around for more than 100 years is the Arcade Theater.  However, in those times, it was only 11 cents to see a movie, and it was one of the only places that had air conditioning.  The Edison Mall was built in 1965 and it also has air conditioning and it expanded the Fort Myers town. It is amazing how much things have changed since then.  One interesting fact from this video that I already knew was that Thomas Edison lived in Fort Myers, but I did not know that Henry Ford visited there often, had a house there, and trails for his cars were made in the 1920s.  I think it would have been great to see Fort Myers at that point in time.  I would have also like to have seen the fields and fields of gladiolus flowers that were once in Fort Myers.  The land used to have huge fields of these beautiful flowers, but now the land is mostly comprised of concrete buildings and roads.  The town expanded greatly and changed a lot in the 1960s.  During this time Hurricane Donna hit (destroying most things), retired people started going there, Edison Community College was opened, and the black people and white people finally became integrated.  I am not sure why this is surprising to me, but Fort Myers was one of the last cities in the country to become integrated.  Fort Myers has nice weather, a great history, and many attractions (Imaginarium, Edison's home, Ford's home, Barbara B Mann, etc.).  After watching these videos, learning about the history, and seeing old photographs of Fort Myers, I am very glad the city put together the restoration program to revive downtown.  I am also glad I visited downtown Fort Myers and saw the great job they have done so far in reserving it.

~Max G.