In 2022, the Fort Myers Mural Society teamed up with Fort Myers’ Community Redevelopment Agency and Public Art Committee to install 53 murals on the concrete stanchions surrounding the river basin next to the Luminary Hotel. A few weeks later, surge from Hurricane Ian damaged seven of those stanchions. They were repaired this summer, and the Mural Society has now installed the last eight murals.
MORE INFORMATION:
The river basin murals create an outdoor walkable art and history museum.
They were painted by 38 area artists on mural cloth, which was then affixed to cut-outs in each stanchion with a special epoxy that hardens the paint and protects it from moisture and fading.
Each mural is either a reproduction or composite of historical images of Fort Myers dating to 1850.
By using the Otocast app, people can hear audios and view depictions of Fort Myers early relationship to the Caloosahatchee River. The app also includes the photos each artist referenced, along with the artist’s bio.
The project contemplates a second phase, in which murals of Manuel A. Gonzalez, Harvie Heitman, Tootie McGregor and Dr. Ella Mae Piper will be added to the four obelisks that flank Edwards Drive.
The murals just installed include:
“The Recreation Pier” by Jacqueline Virtue: This mural depicts the “pleasure pier” that was constructed at the foot of Fowler Street at the insistence of town leaders Harvie Heitman and Capt. W.F. Gwynne in 1913. The 14-foot-wide pier extended 450 feet into the river and became the site of concerts and dances that the city held there.
“Promenade on the Royal Palm Hotel Pier” by Ava Roeder: This mural depicts guests of Fort Myers’ upscale Royal Palm Hotel taking a mid-morning stroll on the hotel’s 800-foot-long pier. These soirees possessed all the elegance of a New York City fashion show, with the long pine-planked pier serving as runway. Always forward-thinking, Tootie proposed that the city construct a concrete seawall 200 feet off the existing bank of the river from Monroe Street all the way to Billy’s Creek and fill in the gap with sand and shell dredged up from the river bottom.
Tootie McGregor Terry Driving First Seawall Piling” by Pat Collins: Today, new generations of residents and hundreds of thousands of visitors take for granted that the bank of the river was always where it is today. But that’s not the case. Until 1907, the riverbank meandered some 20 to 30 feet south of Bay Street. But that changed when Fort Myers greatest booster and benefactor Tootie McGregor Terry purchased the Royal Palm Hotel. Work finally started on April 10, 1908, in front of the Royal Palm. Tootie drove the first piling during a ceremony that included a seven-shot salute fired from her yacht, the Whim, which was moored just offshore. The mural is based on a rare photograph provided by historian Ken Rager. It’s one of the few photographs that we have of Fort Myers’ most important booster and benefactor.
“Fashionista Flossie Hill” by Pat Collins: This mural is a portrait of one of Fort Myers most illustrious early pioneers, firefighter and fashionista Flossie Hill. During a time when few women worked outside the home, Flossie Hill was an ambitious and fashion-forward entrepreneur. She operated a store called “The Ladies Trading Place.” It catered to women, carrying apparel, millenary and other items of interest not only to the town’s women, but the ladies who stayed during season at places like the Royal Palm Hotel, Bradford Inn, the Leon and, of course, the Hill House. In fact, one or more of the hats you see in the preceding mural, which depicts a promenade on the Royal Palm Hotel pier, were probably purchased around the block at Flossie’s store.
“The Royal Palm Hotel” by Jacqueline Virtue: The Royal Palm was the brainchild of mercantile magnate Hugh O’Neill, whose department store on Manhattan’s Sixth Avenue was the largest in the world at that time. When it opened on January 15, 1898, the ultra-modern 50-room Fort Myers Hotel was state of the art. But it wasn’t these novelties that wowed out-of-town guests. Rather, it was the hotel’s lush tropical landscaping which included the town’s very first royal palms. In fact, it was those royal palms that inspired Thomas Edison to buy and have hundreds of them planted along McGregor Boulevard.
“Man with 7’ Tarpon” by Victor Dotres: This mural is based on an early photograph of a man posing with a trophy-sized tarpon he’d just caught in the waters of the Caloosahatchee River. It surprises most people to learn that folks once caught trophy-size silver kings in the Caloosahatchee River. But before a canal was dredged to connect the headwaters of the river to Lake Okeechobee in the effort to create a cross-state waterway, the river was home to all kinds of sport fish, including tarpon.
“Coca Cola Bottling Plant on City Dock” by Diane Lady Light Tormey: The Fort Myers Coca-Cola bottling Company was originally located on the City Docks. Opened in 1911 by Bivion B. Hawkins, the plant mixed buckets of water from the Caloosahatchee River with a sweet sticky syrup shipped down from Punta Gorda by sailboat. Coca Cola’s tenure on the City Dock was relatively short-lived. Hawkins moved the plant in 1914 to a building on Heitman Street, where he installed new equipment and expanded his customer base. In 1926, Hawkins incorporated the business under the name Fort Myers Coca Cola Bottling Co. Needing more space, Hawkins moved his operation in 1929 to the corner of Cleveland and Edison Avenues (where the CVS pharmacy is located today).
“Two Men in a Boat” by Carolyn Gora: This mural is based on an historic image provided by local realtor and historian Ken Rager. While we don’t now the identity of the two men in the boat, the picture does underscore the important role that boating played in the lives of those who came to and settled Fort Myers during the town’s early existence.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.
