“What? You want me to move my family to someplace in Florida to open a grocery store in a place that has a population of 13 people?”
That is the conversation Elmer Tabor recalls that his father had when being asked to move to Florida from West Virginia.
Many residents of Cape Coral are familiar with the exciting history of the community—from the Rosen Brothers to Connie Mack. There are excellent history books written about how everything started, along with old photos, like “Lies That Came True” by Eileen Bernard and “Selling The Dream” by David Dodrill—to name a few.
Cape Coral was founded in 1957, then incorporated in August 1970. This month it will be 47 years old as a city and 60 years old as a community. The Gulf American Corporation (GAC) promoted the new development as the “Waterfront Wonderland.” Cape Coral claims to have more miles of canals than any other city in the world.
The Cape Coral Historical Society has an exhibit dedicated to the beginning of Cape Coral. They have many fascinating old photos of the development, real estate fliers and even old menus from the early popular eateries.
Rather than repeat the well known history that most residents know, our goal is to share experiences, memories and everyday activities from some of the original founders’ children.
Some of the early Cape Coral pioneers are proud of the order in which they arrived as settlers. Most of the early pioneers were GAC company men or contractors. Some of the early family names most familiar to local residents are Schwartz, Finkernagel, Dufalla, Sanborn, Schroder, Tabor and Raso, to name only a few. And they know in what order their families arrived!
Dennis Dufalla, whose family were the second residents after Kenny Schwartz, recalls as a child all the freedom he and the other children had. “Many of us had boats. We water skied and fished. There was nothing around us but undeveloped land. I learned how to drive at an early age—a very early age—on all the unpaved roads in the area. We would go down to where Cape Harbor is now. Back then it was nothing but a deserted sand bar, half under water. There were no homes around for miles at the time.”
I asked Dennis’ wife, Anne, who is pioneer Robert Finkernagel’s daughter, what life was like living here in the early 1960’s. Finkernagel was made the managing director of the GAC development, replacing Schwartz when he was promoted. “As a teenager,” she recalled, “I was dragged kicking and screaming down here because I had a very comfortable life up north and enjoyed my large Gainesville high school. For a youngster, life was tough here, having to get bussed to school, stopping first in North Fort Myers, and then riding to Fort Myers during school days. It made for a very long day, but I did love visiting the Rose Garden and Porpoise Pool, every chance I got.”
Dennis added, “I finally bought a motorbike back then and rode that to school in Fort Myers–it saved half the time of riding the bus.” Dennis added, “There was no crime around and we all left our doors open. We could go into anyone’s home without question and be treated like family.”
GAC had acquired a Volkswagen bus that held maybe eight people. In the morning, it drove kids to North Fort Myers schools. After that, it was used to drive wives into Fort Myers for shopping until stores were built on Cape Coral Parkway. On Saturday mornings, the van drove kids to the Arcade Theater to see the early shows. The vehicle soon had to be replaced by a full-sized school bus, but the old van was still used by security. That VW bus was also used to make grocery runs to Al’s Supermarket in North Fort Myers on old Route 41.
In 1960, Clarence Duffala constructed the first shopping center on Cape Coral Parkway and Elmer Tabor (Sr.) opened the first grocery store. Elmer recalls his father’s small 3,500 square foot store. “We had everything we could fit in the place, from butcher shop to bakery. I remember sorting empty bottles in the back that had a 5-cent deposit. That gave me the idea to go around to all the construction sites and collect empty bottles. It was good money then for a kid. We also used that old VW bus to buy and haul fresh vegetables from the fields to the store that eventually grew to a 23,000 square foot building.”
GAC used to hold dances and show movies in the Nautilus Inn’s Surfside Café. They were very keen on good community relations. It became a multipurpose facility as café by day, lounge by night.
GAC then built the Yacht Club, as well as a Teen Center next door (now the senior center.) The Teen Center offered children everything from a jukebox to a food canteen with game tables and, of course, pinball machines. Some kids were able to easily walk to the Teen Center, while others had to ride their bicycles and weave around the canals. Anne said, “Anyone driving by would stop and give us a lift to the center.”
Others, like Chris Schroder, got creative. Although the center could be seen across a 100’ wide canal, it was a mile walk to get there. Chris recalled how he and his brothers used a small dingy to shorten the trip. They devised a way to use a long fishing line to attach to the boat and ferry the guys easily back and forth across the canal. Anne remembered the kids felt special having a key to unlock the door of the center. “GAC took a big interest in providing the kids with something to do.”
During the day, a few of the wives would go down to the pier and socialize as they waited for the mail boat, then some would get onboard for a return ride to Fort Myers to shop. Travel by water back then was far easier than driving anywhere. GAC also provided a speedboat for the kids to use waterskiing.
More than one person mentioned what a poor road Del Prado was at the time, especially when it rained. It was not unusual to see fish and snakes in the street from the dredging of the canals. Yet it was the only route north to Pine Island Road to get over to North Fort Myers, then down to the city.
Elmer added, “All the kids did something with boats. We even built a crude ski jump in one of the water basins to use.” Later the city held hydroplane races that people watched from Dolphin Drive. “When we were not out on the water, we flew model airplanes in the parking lots. And when some of us got bored, we would go lay down in the middle of 47th Terrace so the GAC planes couldn’t land. They had to send someone out to chase us away.”
“The Yacht Club was the big social draw for the adults in the early days, along with the Nautilus Inn. There was also the Little Shell and Big Shell Islands that offered live music, food and drink to local boaters. We could hear the music across the water outside our homes.” Both Dennis and Chris agreed that they served great hamburgers there.
When asked if the early homes built had air conditioning, Dennis recalled that his dad was a builder, but their first home didn’t have air. “Us kids would sleep out on the porch with the jalousie windows open and hope for a breeze. All the homes back then were built using those style windows.” He recalled that his father finally rented an upscale home he had just built for a wealthy northern customer. “The air conditioning was a real treat.”
Chris recalled Hurricane Donna in 1960. “We didn’t get much warning but, as kids, it was exciting at the time, waiting in anticipation of its arrival. When it came, it blew our carport away and damaged our autos. I was playing in the bedroom room when the windows blew out and showered my brothers and me with glass. My parents took us into a small hallway where we stayed. During the eye we went outside to go to the shelter but our cars were not drivable. We had to stay with a neighbor until the storm was over.”
Gloria Raso Tate recalls being a child and arriving in Cape Coral with her extended family of ten in the middle of the hurricane. “My father, Joseph, was hired to be the first full time bartender at the Surfside Café. He also worked at the golf club. We were put up at the damaged duplex across the street from the Nautilus. It had all the windows and doors blown off, so we spent most of the day out by the pool.”
Dennis remembered that, after the hurricane, he and his father took a construction truck and drove from house to house removing neighbors from their damaged homes. “We took them to the evacuation center at the Nautilus Inn.”
“What was nice back then,” said Chris, “was that everyone was like family. Very few of the people living in Cape Coral were native Floridians—we were all from someplace else. GAC even erected a post with signs proclaiming the number of people and the state they came from.” Elmer added, “Everyone had 40 mothers and fathers. We were all well watched over.”
I asked Chris if the hurricane was why his father built the first fallout shelter in Cape Coral. He said, “No, I think he was worried about the Cuban missile crisis at the time.” Elmer added that he and Chris used the shelter as a darkroom later to develop photographs for people. Chris eventually open his own photo studio.
During the early years, Cape Coral was serviced by a doctor who visited twice a week by boat—more often if the fishing was good. Gloria eventually married one of the first full time resident doctors. Gloria told me she loved growing up here. “Age made no difference, all the children played with one another.” Gloria and the others talked about how bad the bugs were. No one back then had a problem with smearing his skin with the liquid chemical from the mosquito control trucks.
Chris said, “I recall playing with Kenny Schwartz’s boys off McGregor Boulevard while Mr. Schwartz was in a meeting. He then drove us to the river, east of where Cape Coral Parkway ended. Mr Schwartz pointed and said, boys this is where we are going to build the bridge.” Chris went on to remember how residents debated whether or not to incorporate. “The folks finally agreed, and we all saw wonderful changes in the community. Services of all sorts flowed in and the growth was rapid.”
Elmer recalled the time in high school when he was working part time at the boat yard. “I managed to slice my finger off. A friend rushed me to the medical clinic on Coronado, but it was closed. A deputy drove by and helped by driving me across the bridge to the hospital on Cleveland Ave. It was sort of odd because he had to stop a number of times to open the hood of his cruiser and bang on the siren with his revolver to make it turn off, since he was entering a designated hospital quiet zone.” Yes, they reattached Elmer’s finger, as well as three others he lost over the years.
It is nice to know that many of these same people continue to support the community by making themselves available to speak to groups about their early Cape Coral experiences. It was not easy growing up in early Cape Coral, but these folks made the best of it and had fun. As I think about all their stories, I can almost hear the “Theme from a Summer Place” by Percy Faith, or “He’ll Have to Go” by Jim Reeves playing on their radios back then.
In celebrating the 1970 incorporation, I sometimes wonder if an image of that old VW bus shouldn’t have somehow been designed into the city’s seal.
If you have never visited the Cape Coral Historical Museum, you should! It is located at 544 Cultural Park Blvd. You can call them at (239) 772-7037 or visit their website at www.capecoralhistoricalmuseum.org.
