This month a Southwest Florida icon is celebrating its 90th birthday. And it's doing so with its eye on what it hopes will be a bright and bold future.

The Everglades Wonder Gardens opened in 1936, and still is a big visitor draw today.

You see the gardens in Bonita Springs, and some might ask: how can this kind of place survive for nine decades?

"It's amazing," Paige Brennan of Seattle said on her first visit ever to the gardens. She brought her young son to see the place. "You can tell the staff really keeps up with animals and keeps it very family friendly." 

The Wonder Gardens have proved to be the ultimate roadside attraction.

"You know these are legacy experiences, legacy places where we can celebrate really an oasis of Old Florida," Neil Anderson Wonder Gardens president, said.

It was during the depression when brothers Bill and Lester Piper started showing Everglades animals on the banks of the Imperial river along old Tamiami Trail. Old photos show them with alligators and black bears that made up the most popular tourist draws. To this day part of the allure of the place centers on children, who may be fascinated by the squawks of birds, and the playful antics of otters.

"It's just really nice and peaceful and calm," Ian McNamara of Chicago said. He came to the gardens with his child and other family members in early January. "Disney World- that'd be just super crazy and hectic.  We can come here and have  a relaxing morning."  
    
The gardens almost became condos 13 years ago, when the Piper family was about to sell to developers. A citizens group raised nearly $600,000 to save the place.

Trish Leonard was chair of the group that raised money.

"I just started calling people: hey can you come on the board for the Wonder Gardens, we've got to save it," Leonard recalled.   "And that's how it kind of triggered a lot of emotion. And then having the media come out and see it."  

Leonard said people held bake sales and barbeques to raise cash for the gardens.

"I got involved because I am a community activist anyway, and I'm a philanthropist, and my husband and I are both Bonitans, and we just love the place," Leonard said.
     
Eventually the City of Bonita Springs bought the property, and a non-profit foundation operates the gardens. It celebrates the 90th with a fundraiser on Saturday evening, January 31.

"So we can raise money for all our wonderful new habitats and our animal care center and wonderful things that we need desperately here at the Wonder Gardens," Michelle Stromberg Ohlhaber, the marketing director, said.

"I just couldn't believe this special oasis existed, just under four acres of beauty at every turn," Ohlhaber said. "Whether it's the birds or the alligators or the otters, to me it's about education and learning about conservation."

A Family Fun Day follows on Sunday, February 1.

"We're going to have wonderful community partners here," Andrea White, chair of the fun day, said. "They'll each have an activity where it will have a theme oriented to nature, wildlife and conservation, and that will be geared towards the kids.

"Everybody that is a part of the gardens, whether they work here, whether they volunteer here, have such a heart for the animals and the community that this garden brings," White said. "This is the Old Florida charm that we've grown to know and love."

Here is a link to more information about the special 90th events:

https://wondergardens.org/90th-celebration/
    
The place has a new theme: Renew the Wonder. And to make that real, workers are putting in a large tiki-hut event center.
More Pink Flamingos are expected, after construction of a hurricane-resistant night-house. And the gardens plans a canopy walk - to allow a 'tree house' view of the grounds.

"So it's kind of like we're toeing the line on both the old oasis of Florida, but still having that modern twist to it," Kaitlyn Henry, Director of Living Collections, said. "And I think that's what really draws people in, as we're able to offer both."
   
In a society that worships new and shiny, the Wonder Gardens recently set a record: just under 1,000 visitors in one day.

"You know you don't have to be old and run-down to represent Old Florida," President Neil Anderson said. "Because we knew one thing:  no one has this piece of property. No one has the Wonder Gardens.   And we want to keep true to that." 

The Family Fun Day will happen on Sunday, Feb. 1, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. Admission is $25, and the gardens will have special exhibits and attractions for children during that day.

Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University.