Punta Gorda Beach

 

It may come as a surprise to many that there was once a Punta Gorda Beach miles away from the city.   Punta  Gorda Beach, which had various names over its life, was originally created as Chadwick Beach named after its  developers.  The Chadwick Brothers operated a fish packing business in Punta Gorda until 1926 when they sold it to the West Coast Fish Company. After the sale, Clay and Steve Chadwick and their families moved from Punta Gorda to Lemon Bay where they began the development of Chadwick Beach on Manasota Key. They had their property platted and filed dedicating roads to the County. When lots did not sell well due to lack of  access to the island, the  brothers worked with T.C Crosland to have a bridge built. The Chadwicks also built a "pavilion" on the beach which offered groceries, gasoline, dressing rooms and showers.

It was then in the 1930s that a portion of Chadwick Beach was renamed Punta Gorda Beach. A man named Lou Woods had purchased the property to develop, failed and worked a deal with Charlotte County to help sell the land if it were renamed “Punta Gorda Beach.”  This enabled the county seat in Punta Gorda to advertise at the 1933 Chicago World Fair that it had a beach on the Gulf of Mexico. The fact that the city and beach were 27 miles apart was not mentioned. Many Punta Gorda families purchased cottages at the Beach - some still own them.  

The Chadwick’s original pavilion was later converted into a Casino. A large, open-sided second floor was a popular spot for Saturday night dances. In 1945,  the place was largely lost to a fire, and later from the remnants in 1958 a restaurant was built that had several names over the years  including the White Elephant.  Around the same time the area was renamed from Punta Gorda Beach to Englewood Beach.  

In 2001 Charlotte County built the public access facilities known today as Englewood Beach at Chadwick Park, honoring the Chadwick family's original development of the area. Today harkening back to an original name the restaurant is now the White Elephant Pub. 

Information on Punta Gorda Beach was from works of Josephine Cortes and Diane Harris, staff of the White Elephant pub and the research of Vernon Peeples at the Punta Gorda History Center.

Gilchrist Gift

100 years ago this week Albert Gilchrist’s gift of ice cream to Punta Gorda children on Halloween was announced to begin 5 months after his death.  The Masons would continue the tradition for 100 years despite the original fund running out during the depression.  The Masons chipped in to keep the tradition alive.  

Gilchrist who went on to become the only Florida Governor missed being  the town’s first mayor by two votes, possibly losing because he objected to the name change.   His gifts to the town went beyond ice cream, During his time in the town  he contributed land including important downtown corners to facilitate the building of stores and a hotel to spark the growth of the city,  He was so beloved  in the town that a half-day closure of businesses and government offices was declared so that people could attend his funeral.  He is buried in Punta Gorda at Indian Springs Cemetery. 

The Punta Gorda Mall

The green space off US 41 North between Marion Avenue and Retta Esplanade, was once the home of the Punta Gorda Shopping Mall.  After a fire destroyed the Hotel Charlotte Harbor in 1959,  the property was developed  for the Shopping Mall which opened in the mid-1960s. 

Later, in 1967, Al Johns and Bud Cole purchased the waterfront area at the end of the mall from the developer, Wilbur Marvin, to build a Howard Johnson's Motor Lodge.  The Springhill Suites and Four Points stand there today.  

During its life the mall housed the Harbor Cinema, McCrory’s, Publix, Eckert’s Drugs, Beall’s and other retail stores.  On the corner of Marion Avenue and 41 was a building originally a B&B market, then Earl Hadley’s Hardware store in the late 1950s, and for a time the home of Karl Elhmer’s German Restaurant.  Also near the mall along the Tamiami Trail over time there was a Royal Castle followed by a Chinese restaurant and a gas station. 

The mall by 2003 was aging, then the old shopping plaza and Karl Elhmer’s, after being badly damaged in Hurricane Charley in 2004, were demolished.  

Now this major section of Punta Gorda’s downtown,  once a bustling retail area occupied by the mall,  remains vacant. Today called City Marketplace, it is used for transient events and according to recent commercial real estate notices listed for sale.  

First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda -- 130 Years Young

The First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda now sits on Airport Road across from the current location of the Masonic Lodge of Punta Gorda.  Ironically, it was in the original masonic hall in downtown Punta Gorda that the church was organized on October 13, 1895.  This year the congregation will celebrate its 130th anniversary.  

Construction of the first church building began in December of 1900 on Harvey Street across from where the City Hall now stands on land purchased from Isaac Trabue.  It was dedicated on April 14, 1901 with Clarence H. Ferran as the first minister.  

For sixty years, the old wood-frame church building served the community, surviving at least two major hurricanes in 1921 and 1926, when almost all buildings in Punta Gorda sustained damage. Then on September 10, 1960 Hurricane Donna hurled into the city and ripped the steeple from the church and damaged the building beyond repair. A year later a new modern church was built at the same location on Harvey.  

Then on Sunday, August 7, 2005 long time members of the church took their seats in folded chairs in the parking lot of the 2nd church sanctuary of the church for the last time before that building was also demolished.  A year before on August 13, 2004, Hurricane Charley left the building in such a state, it couldn't be repaired to satisfy code requirements.

Over its history the congregation has included many prominent Punta Gordas including A.B. Tucker, Norma Pepper, H.W. Smith, Vasco and Lois Peeples, Vernon Peeples, John T. Rose, Dr. Robert Shedd, Frank Smoak Jr., Edwin Roundtree and Lindsey Williams among others.  

Updated March 28, 2025 by T. Murtha

The Smith Arcade

 

The Smith Arcade building across the street from the Punta Gorda post office was built in 1926 by a man named H.W. Smith, who was an early Punta Gorda baker.  Smith originally operated the bakery where the 1905 fire that destroyed much of the early downtown started.  He then built a new shop further east on Marion Avenue near Nesbitt and began expanding from there, first a hotel, the Bayview with shops within it, and later the Arcade.

Covered shopping areas date back many hundreds of years when they were constructed to allow traders to sell out of the hot sun in the Middle East including the vaulted arcades or ‘souks’ found in Jerusalem. However, it was in Europe where these arcades were embraced and eventually evolved into the elegant 19th century shopping arcades which became widespread in the UK and reached Scotland in 1827. Perhaps one of the most famous is the Burlington Arcade in London, which has a similar look to Smith's.

The original Smith's Arcade, one of the earliest in the U.S.,  had glass roof panels like the Burlington Arcade, but given the potential for leakage and the the hot Florida sun these were replaced.  But the Arcade still has the original stain glass windows and gorgeous tile floor with tiles made in Venice, Florida. 

The Arcade Building was the center of activity in Punta Gorda from 1926 to 1958.  During this period the U.S. Post Office was located in the building.  Residents made daily trips to the post office to receive their mail since the area did not have home delivery.  The Maxwell Pharmacy was one of the early occupants along with a new realty office.  Over time it was the home of Dr. Clement's office, the Harry Rich Radio, a small grocery store, a dentist's office, a radio repair business, and a beauty parlor. It was a favorite activity to stop for ice cream while waiting for mail, probably in the drug store which had a soda fountain. 

Today the  indoor Arcade is closed, but building itself houses the Perfect Caper Restaurant and a Florida Department of Correction state probation office.