Untold Stories; Cape Coral: Dreamers & Schemers

This segment a WGC use local Untold Stories is underwritten by the county government county commission and the City of Cape Coral City Council. We. See. THE. Cape Coral Florida is a booming bustling city. One of the fastest growing communities in the country a city with an exciting future and a relatively brief history. Prior to 1839. Little is known about what is now Cape Coral but it is known that the first people to settle here arrived centuries before the birth of Christ.

The area of Cape Coral was first populated by people who migrated across the Bering land bridge during the Ice Age say something along the lines of 12000 years ago and ultimately made their way down into southwest Florida and the descendants of those first inhabitants of this region became known as the Colusa and they dominated all of southwest Florida right up there the Spanish era. Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon may have walked the land in what is now Cape Coral. In the early 16th century. He landed on South Florida's coast in 15:21 in hopes of establishing a farming colony. It was a question that cost him his life when he was mortally wounded by a Colusa Arul. The Colusa were ultimately responsible for the death of Juan Ponce de Leon and that occurred either immediately adjacent to or very possibly you know right in the southern part of Cape Coral for the next two centuries. The Colusa ruled the region from Tampa Bay to the 10000 islands. But their days were numbered. The Europeans brought with them a host of deadly diseases

like smallpox and typhus which decimated the Colusa. So. Slavery is finished the job by the late 70s hundreds. This once proud people. Were gone. It would be almost another century before Cape Coral would actually make it into the history books. It would take yet another encounter between Native Americans and white intruders. The names were different this time but the outcome was the same. In early 1839 during the second seminal war a peace agreement called for the establishment of a trading post on the north bank of the Caloosahatchee River near where the Cape Coral bridge now touches land. But that agreement was verbal only and word of it may not have reached the Seminoles of southwest Florida. A troop of about two dozen soldiers and a few traders was dispatched under the command of U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel William S. Harney to develop the settlement.

Things went peaceably for several months then in the pre-dawn hours of July 23rd 1839. The post was attacked by about 160 Seminoles led by Chief Chuck Gaika. Harney clad only in his underwear shirt and socks fled into the Caloosahatchee along with one of his dragoons. When he returned with reinforcements he found his men dead. Their bodies mutilated disemboweling. The massacre shattered the uneasy truce and the seminal wars continued until 1858 in the post at Hardi point was abandoned marked today by only a green historical plaque behind the office of the Cape Coral Chamber of Commerce Cape Coral vidit back into relative obscurity during the post-Civil War years cattle ranching large stands of virgin Yellow Pine loggers who shipped their timber to a sawmill in North Lee County then part of Monroe County during the

1920s a number of pioneering families took advantage of the federal Homestead Act of 1862 and settled in what had been dubbed hungriness. The settlers lived Spartan lives they build cracker style homes and live mostly off the land. Farming grazing cattle and hogs fishing. Hunting. Wildlife was abundant. It was really pioneering probably in this area. There were five homes sets. And there were mostly cattle ranches. They were vegetables and flowers and things like that. But the main thing was cattle ranches. Those homesteaders included Jacob David Moultrie. My grandfather homesteaded 160 acres back in 1920. And he helped build. And I don't know if the governor gave you 160 acres you had to develop it. You had to clear it and you had five years to actually

take that property and and make something out of it even into the late 1940s. Only a handful of families lived in Old keep or old and life was idyllic for a child growing up in the country was not swamp land there were what they call gator holes which were all over. Got it all over and he could hear them at night also that big gator ponds back there. But no it was a it was a hunting and fishing and there were flower farms and vegetable farms and no it was it was was quite nice quite nice feast. That's how we live. We the kids we were never home. We always ran the woods and you know. And rode horses and stuff. So a scant 50 years ago when Fort Myers Ponta Gorda Naples were bustling thriving communities what would become Cape Coral lay fallow one hundred fifteen square miles undeveloped and under-populated locals in Fort Myers called it simply the other side of the river but that

was about to change. Leonard and Julius Rosen were on the way. America was a land of hope and excitement in 1957 optimistic exuberant innocence. The space age was about to blast off. Leave it to Beaver made its TV debut. Elvis was king of that new music called rock n roll. And Southwest Florida set out on a roller coaster ride that has yet to peak. The sons of Russian Jewish immigrants Cape Coral founders Leonard and Julius Jack Rosen honed their sales skills early as pitchman on the boardwalk at Atlantic City at carnivals and fairs and on the streets of their hometown Baltimore. In 1940 they began selling furniture and appliances developing techniques like installment buying that would later propel them to the top of Florida's land development boom. They formed the Charles and tell company

marketing a line of lanolin based hair care products. The Rosens quickly recognized the potential of the new medium called television literally inventing the infomercial. In the late 50s they began looking for new challenges. Leonard Rosen first came to Florida looking for a possible retirement home but his thoughts quickly turned to land development a totally new field for him and his brother. They came down and looked all over all over Florida actually the East Coast and West Coast and they flew over this piece of property and they said that's where we're going to build a city. In July of 1957 the Rosen brothers spent just over six hundred fifty thousand dollars to buy a large parcel of land on redfish point a chunk of peninsula jutting out from the west bank of the Caloosahatchee River. They settled on the name Cape Coral and were so confident that planning and design work was under way even before the purchase was consummated.

No highways linked to Rosens dream city in what is now Southcote call to the rest of civilization. Only a narrow strip of dirt lane called Harney point road in late 1957. Crews began building a new road later to be named Del PRADO Boulevard. Then there was no looking back. Jack and Leonard Rosen were brothers but they were also very different almost opposites. Leonard brash volatile hard driving Geck creative and easygoing. Yet despite their differences they seemed to compliment each other perfectly. To this day the question persists where the Rosens visionaries are or were they simply in it to make a quick buck. As land speculators I don't think that they had an idea of making a lot of money. Now it was a business venture. And there because they started out with forty eight hundred acres and that's all they were going to develop. There's the old adage that said if we're going to build a city.

That. The saying goes it were. Leonard Hall mother said you are going to build a city. You can't even keep your room clean. The Rosens knew the public relations value of using celebrities to pitch their products in Cape Coral. They also needed a highly respected local spokesperson. They found the perfect man in Connie Mack Jr. the son of the revered former ball player manager and owner of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball club teamed with nationally known sports announcer Bill Stern. They made a potent marketing tool since the project was under capitalized from the start. The Rosens knew they had to create some cash flow so to finance construction costs land sales began almost immediately. Even as the first shovels full of dirt were being turned in order to be able to draw prospective buyers to the site construction of roads and canals was a top

priority. In addition to creating a sales tool dredging the canals also provided Phil to raise the level of the land that meant whatever vegetation the loggers of the past had left had to be cleared. That didn't always sit well with the people who already lived there. We had a lot of pine. It was Piney Woods is what they called it. You can walk through it a lot of palmetto is mixed in with those pine trees. After Cabe croquet meant all of the trees were cut down while roads were being built and canals dredged the Rosens and their new corporation the Gulf guarantee land and title company eventually shortened to Gulf American. We're building a large international sales force and putting in place an aggressive and innovative marketing program. Are salesmen spread out across the country and around the world praising and sometimes exaggerating the joys of living in this new waterfront Wonderland that was springing for life

in South Florida. Prospective buyers were flown to Cape Coral where they were wined dined and taken on a car plane or boat tours and subjected to a high pressure sales pitch. They called it fly by. Small aircraft often taking off from an impromptu strip on the Cape Coral Parkway would fly Byars over the vacant land where a salesman dropped bags of flour to mark their new home sites. By April of 1958 Kate Pooles first four homes were under construction in what is now the yacht club basin area. Brenda Jones Robinson's family from Ohio was one of the first to move into the new community of Cape Coral. Kids learn to drive boats before they learn to drive cars. And that's how we would visit our friends after school we'd come home drop our books jump little boats and run off to our friends home. We would water ski in the river. We would take our boats out to Sanibel Island that was in the days before there was a

causeway. Most developers were out to sell as much land and as many houses as they could while spending as little money as they could get away with amenities waited until sales justified the cost. The Rosens took the opposite approach. Developers came in they said when we get to a certain population we'll build a yacht club or we'll build a golf course and they have the philosophy. They said we'll build it first. And then the people will come and they were right. Now that's what happened. Golf American which also developed Golden Gate estates in Collier County built a motel a restaurant a golf course and with a population of only eleven hundred. The costly Cape Coral yacht club with the pier and harbor. But these projects were not mere acts of generosity. There were also powerful sales tools. There was a lot of them tourists people coming in from all over the world. They came to the farm to come to the Rose Garden the Yacht Club and

all over and had them sign on the dotted line. Cape Coral Gardens a crowning tribute to Jack and Leonard Rosen's vision and boundless enthusiasm. A pre Disney World theme park without a theme company wordsmiths rhapsodized it as a day and night spectacular. That is fast becoming one of the greatest attractions in all of Florida. Built in 1964. It eventually filled 68 acres with a host of dazzling attractions a replica of Mt. Rushmore of 40000 Bush rose garden the garden of patriots with busts of famous Americans including President John F. Kennedy whose assassination was still a fresh raw wound on America's soul and the piece de resistance brought from West Germany by Jack Rosen. Cape Coral gardens cost four million dollars to build and attracted some

300000 visitors a year from around the world. And it failed by the late 60s the gardens were hemorrhaging cash. It had been intended not as a profit center but as a promotional vehicle to attract land buyers when it had outlived its usefulness as a sales to to American tried unsuccessfully to turn it over to the state. In 1970 the plug was called on to grow gardens gardens. They went the most beautiful. It was the most beautiful place you can imagine. To me it is a shame that it wasn't preserved despite some opposition both in Cape Coral and Fort Myers the Cape Coral bridge was built in 1964. Prior to that any kind of serious shopping meant a long trek into Fort Myers. The mail came in once a day on a boat.

This was another adventure that mailboat would arrive down at the Yacht Club at the little bake shack by the pier opening the Cape girl bridge did more than let the mail through it opened the floodgates for even more development slicing seven miles off the journey to Fort Myers. Through the 60s the bulldozers and drag lines barely shut down canals appeared almost overnight. New homes sprouted like wildflowers after a spring rain businesses restaurants banks gas stations hung out open for business signs and through it all the people kept coming and buying. Between 1960 and 1970 the population had jumped from 280 to more than 11000. But as the population increased so did Gulf Americans problems. Regulators in Washington Florida and other states began scrutinizing land sale practices especially deceptive advertising low money down low monthly installment buying schemes and salesmen who frequently

stepped over the ethical line with projects all over Florida and in Arizona. Golf American became the nation's largest land sales firm and fell squarely in the investigators crosshairs. The Rosens meanwhile were plagued by a contentious relationship with Florida's new Republican governor Claude Kirk whose opponent they had backed in the 1966 election. And in Cape Coral's first years there was talk of a whites only clause in the sales contracts. To compound these problems the country was embarking on a new course of environmental consciousness. Gulf Americans relentless dredging filling and bulldozing destroyed wetlands drained the freshwater aquifer and decimated the once abundant wildlife habitat. Had they been forced to operate under two days stringent environmental standards it's doubtful that the Rosens could duplicate their astounding success in Cape

Coral. I don't think that they would be able to do today what they did back then. A lot of destruction for they for their land. In 1969 Leonard and Jack Rosens sold Gulf American to the GC Corporation a Pennsylvania based finance company which was eager to acquire and refinance at a huge profit. Gulf Americans millions of dollars in installment payment receivables. But GHC immediately ran into even more serious problems with federal regulators. Disgruntled customers and its own impatient creditors. They were not land development people they were finance people. And they philosophies of how you sell change. And that was sort of a divisor of. Casey. Saddled with monstrous debt strapped for cash and faced with plummeting land sales GHC filed for bankruptcy.

And by 1980 the company no longer existed. During the Rosen years Gulf American took an almost paternalistic approach to its fledgling City. Back in those days we all have street signs stop signs. We issued house numbers in the post office which you would think would do that we did it. We started the first television company we first started the fire department and we had the volunteer police department volunteer fire department as Cape Coral grew so did the feeling among wari residents that the time was nearing when it needed to step out on its own Gulf American wanted to see Lee County take on managing and providing services but the county Valke the Cape Coral civic association was formed to look out for the city's interests. When GHC took over from the Rosens in 1968. Local concerns Huyton and the civic association

began looking at the possibility of incorporation. At a referendum on Aug. 11 1970. Cape Coral residents voted to take control of their own destiny then elected their first mayor and city council. Over the ensuing decades Cape girl continued its breakneck pace adding yet another growth engine. In 1997. When the new mid-point bridge opened after decades of debate and controversy. The midpoint and its connecting veterans highway provided vital links between Cape Coral. And cities to the east and north. And. To the future. If the Rosen brothers had not flown over redfish point on that day in 1957 someone else someday surely would have developed this land. People can only speculate today about what its name would be and what it would look like. But the Rosens legacy is undeniable yet save

for Leonard Street. Not a single Boulevard not a park not a school not a monument. Other than a worn bronze plaque at the Cape Coral Historical Museum marks. Their presence here Jack Rosen died at his home in Miami Beach at 50 years of age. Just nine months after the sale to GHC went through Leonard embittered by the Cape Coral experience relocated to Nevada and set up yet another land sale business which he later expanded into shares after battling heart problems for years. Leonard Rosen died in Las Vegas in 1987. He was 72. Over its first half century Kate girls population jumped from a handful of people

to more than 150000. Officials predict the next 50 years will bring more of the same. The build up for the city actually is expected to be somewhere around 2080 although at the time that analysis was made. The rate of growth was a bit slower than it is now so we'll probably increase that maybe 10 years before the puppyish will be somewhere between 400 450000 and cities building that kind of explosive growth. Did not come without a cost for a while that produced great opportunity for the city. It also generated vexing challenges and problems problems spawned by decisions made in Cape girls formative years. One of those challenges was ironically what Cape girls founders envisioned as one of its brightest features morphed into one of its biggest headaches. That network of

canals they dredged to create a waterfront Wonderland confounded the process of building new highways or expanding existing roads. Cape Coral is not laid out like very many other cities will ever see. We have 400 miles of canals in the city of Cape Coral 225 which are salt water access. Having that many miles of canals in the city of 115 miles means that a lot of roads dont interconnect. The founders decision to carve the city into tens of thousands of small residential lots also made it difficult to build a commercial base to create good jobs and ease the tax burden on homeowners. Well the city of Cape Coral is a pre-planted community designed by developers to sell residential lots. That was really the sole reason. So we have hundreds of thousands of quarter acre pre-planted lots and very few larger parcels we can have a large commercial development or a nice park or a nice school. So thats been a real challenge.

Add to those problems those of crime infrastructure including water and sewers an increasingly diverse population education and recreation and it becomes clear that cape girl's future leaders had a lot on their plates which raised the question what would Cape Coral look like in 20 years 50 years. Well I hope to see a substantial presence of commercial retail establishments great schools great colleges and it really have a Celie's self-sufficient city. So Cape Coral marched into the 21st century much as it began life. Brimming with exuberance optimism and excitement. And facing its biggest challenge of all. Living up to promises made in a promotional film more than thirty five years earlier. That's what the city is all about 320. The dog is one of the reasons why he never did this because

he planned free from the mistakes of yesterday. The city planned for the quarterly growth not just in its first years. Decades and generations to come. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS PROGRAM call 1 8 8 8 8 2 4 0 0 3 0. Or visit our Web site at WGC dot org. And please refer to the program number on your screen. But this program was produced for the citizens of southwest Florida by WGC public media. Show your appreciation for programs like these. Become a member of WGC you a business supporter or leave a legacy through a state or plan. Call or visit our Web site at WGC you dot

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