Distinctly Fort Myers
By David Driapsa
Settlement of the Southwest Florida frontier occurred relatively late in the expansion of the United States. Extreme South Florida remained an outpost of civilization well into the early-twentieth century. This late development of the region combined with technological advancements in transportation and communication that enabled pioneer town founders to introduce civilizing elements into their remote communities. Luxury hotels erected within the coastal area enabled wealthy northern sportsmen and adventurers living on yachts to anchor in deep ports and come ashore to use the telegraph, dine and entertain with kindred fortunate souls. The classically inspired town - though perhaps a single broad avenue and an orderly arrangement of buildings - was believed by town promoters to bring valuable civilizing influences into the wilderness. The classically inspired "special use" town developed in the pioneer era of Southwest Florida principally was a center of natural resource extraction activities and shipment operations.
Civic-minded men and women living in the frontier persuaded their city government to civilize the town by paving roads, laying down sidewalks, building fences to control roving cows, and planting decorative street trees to beautify the landscape. Inventor Thomas A. Edison and his wife Mina, long-time winter residents of Fort Myers, were active civic boosters and did much to humanize the village surrounding their winter estate.
Fort Myers blossomed into a charming frontier town during the early decades of the twentieth century. Thomas Edison was attracted to the beautiful setting and subtropical climate in 1885. Soon other wealthy industrialists built a little colony of handsome homes on estates lining the Caloosahatchee River. Their little town grew prosperous, first with cattle, then citrus, sports fishing, winter vegetables, tropical plant production, and tourism.
Edison established a botanic research corporation on his estate and sent botanists out in search of new species of plant to use as an industrial source of latex to be harvested to produce rubber. He also grew bamboo in his gardens for his experiments to discover a carbonized filament in his development of the electric light bulb. He assembled at Fort Myers one of the finest subtropical botanical collections in the nation.
In 1907, Edison offered (and the city accepted) a plan to beautify the road that passed through his estate by planting a stately colonnade of Royal Palms (Roystonia regia), spaced twenty feet apart, from the edge of Fort Myers out one mile beyond his estate. This planting later was extended ten miles out to the plantations of Dr. Franklin Miles. This beautiful avenue of palms is an important city landmark and survives today as an inspiring historic roadway.
The Everglades Nursery of Fort Myers, under management of James Hendry (who also was civic-minded and planted many of the Royals Palms along McGregor Boulevard) , donated hundreds of the beautiful bougainvillea vine, offered to all homeowners of the city who would plant them in their gardens. This too contributed to the beauty of Fort Myers.
The railroad reached Fort Myers in 1904 and with it opened a shipping pipeline sending local products to northern markets. The commercial production of winter vegetables and tropical ornamental plants increased exponentially and transformed vast tracts of forested land into vegetable crops and plant nurseries. The Everglades Nursery shipped millions of small potted palms to northern markets for table decorations.
The increasing availability of rare plants in Fort Myers enabled local gardeners to transform the landscape into what was described as a tropical horticultural marvel composed of sensuous palms and colorful foliage and flowers. Henry Nehrling, writing in 1917, described Fort Myers as “The Horticultural Gem" of Florida cities. Nehrling was a naturalist and prolific experimenter in the establishment of tropical ornamental plants, and as a writer he spread his gospel of tropical wilderness gardens widely through a weekly in the American Eagle.
Dr. Franklin Miles was the founder of the Miles Pharmaceutical Laboratory of Elgin, Illinois, and he retired to Fort Myers in 1904. Restless in retirement and aware of the potential northern markets through the new railroad pipeline, he established a scientific approach to commercial farming in the region. His collaboration with the US Department of Agriculture brought experts from Washington to both advise him and to learn from his results. Miles established a "School of Practical Agriculture" that educated a generation of leading growers in the early days of Lee County farming. Expert gardeners from the Miles School beautified the estates of the wealthy northerners. Among them were James Hendry, Arthur Kelly, and Vincent Hone, each having worked on the planting of Royal Palms along McGregor Boulevard.
Lewis A. Pearl was an early landscape architect in Fort Myers and created Arts and Crafts inspired formal gardens, some with native plants. In 1916, the wealthiest industrialist in America, automobile magnate Henry Ford, bought the riverfront estate "Mangoes" next door to his mentor, Thomas Edison. Poet laureate John Burroughs was a visitor to the Mangoes and camping companion on outings with Ford, Edison, Harvey Firestone and President Warren Harding. Henry and Clara Ford shared with Mina Edison Burroughs’ great passion for birdlife. At the time, the Fords were working with Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen to create a naturalized Prairie Style landscape on their large rural estate in Michigan. Mina Edison was also naturalizing her estate in Fort Myers to encourage the return of birds and other wildlife, as well as to restore a semblance of the wild scenery that once surrounded the property. John Nolen & Associates Landscape Architects of Cambridge, Massachusetts, was retained for planning advice. Landscape Gardener Henry Nehrling also was retained for the term of one year to plant whatever his believed was advantageous for beautifying the gardens and naturalizing the estate.
Henry Ford dismantled Edison's Fort Myers laboratory and moved it to his historical museum in Dearborn. Ford paid to construct a small office and garden enclosure outlining the space previously occupied by the laboratory. Landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman of New York was retained to design an Arts and Crafts style garden within the enclosure. The Reasoner Brothers landscape architects were later retained to revise the plantings.
Edison immersed himself in botanical experiments, working to produce a domestic source of rubber. He investigated thousands of plants, and settled on the common goldenrod (Solidago spp.) as the best suited for his purposes. His experimental gardens were laid out in scientific precision, with rectangular beds of eight by twenty feet each. This was in striking contrast to the pleasure grounds across the street.
Edison applied his 46 years of local knowledge in subtropical horticulture at Fort Myers, hybridizing golden rod and ultimately fashioning a set of rubber tires.
Ford moved on after his mentor Edison died. Mina Edison returned seasonally until her death in 1947, then bequeathing her estate to the city as a memorial to her husband.
Following World War II, Fort Myers took the course of many American cities: people moved to the suburbs and the historic center languished. Today, the historic core is enjoying a rebirth. Many historic buildings remain, and in places one still sees here and there the beautiful cultural landscape of the bygone era when Fort Myers was the horticultural gem of Florida cities.
David J Driapsa Landscape Architect
(239) 591-2321
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Registered Professional Landscape Architect, Florida LA0001185
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