Images of America – Port Charlotte, Florida

Local History Book Breathes New Life into Lively Past

Aug 9, 2009

If Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon read the history book Images of America: Port Charlotte would he have envisioned a retirement haven around Charlotte Harbor, Fla?

Images of America: Port Charlotte (2009) is a pictorial history book following the development of the Southwest Florida town from cattle ranching and commercial fishing to a modern-day community and retirement haven. Roxann Read has gathered photographs and advertisements encapsulating Port Charlotte’s birth and growth with images dating from the post-Civil War era through the 1990s. The Port Charlotte resident and author has diligently researched the community’s history to uncover interesting facts to accompany the images. These interesting bits of information will leave readers saying, “I didn’t know that,” and satisfy a curiosity about Port Charlotte.

Port Charlotte The Beginning

Charlotte Harbor’s first inhabitants were the Calusa, Timucua and Seminole tribes up through the 1700s with separate visits from Spanish explorers Juan Ponce de Leon, Hernando de Soto and Pedro Menendez D’Aviles throughout the 1500s. Port Charlotte mentions these important moments but the history book primarily focuses on the twentieth century.

Black and white images lead readers on a journey through the important industries that shaped Port Charlotte including cattle ranching, commercial fishing, phosphate mining, real estate, education, and medical industries. The first half of the twentieth century set the groundwork for the latter half and modern-day Port Charlotte.

Port Charlotte Movers and Shakers

General Development Corporation (GDC) and the Mackle Company were instrumental in establishing Port Charlotte as a retirement haven. Beginning in the 1950s, strips of land were developed and GDC set out on an aggressive marketing campaign to target mid-income retirees in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. Several advertisements from this campaign are included in Images of America: Port Charlotte. GDC’s efforts have been successful since modern-day Charlotte County, where Port Charlotte is located, has one of the highest retirement populations in the U.S. As for GDC, their demise was a bit scandalous, as mentioned in Port Charlotte.

While GDC was significant in the growth of Port Charlotte, readers of the book are introduced to others who made their own impact on the Southwest Florida community including Charlotte County’s longest serving school superintendent, a horticulturist for which a street is named, a Chicago real estate salesman for which a neighborhood is named, and Port Charlotte’s 10,000th resident.

Port Charlotte Famous Visitors

The book recognizes some of the famous folk who have visited Port Charlotte. A-list guests have included a film crew to shoot serials about a loin-clothed man who swings from a vine and two first ladies who visited the Cultural Center of Charlotte County. The 26th President of the United States, a bright inventor, and father of modern assembly lines, also visited during the early to mid-twentieth century.

Port Charlotte Arcadia Publishing

Images of America: Port Charlotte will be enjoyed by longtime residents and those just moving to the community and looking to understand more about Port Charlotte’s beginnings. Visitors and tourists with a taste for history will also enjoy the book.

The copyright of the article Images of America – Port Charlotte, Florida in American History is owned by Jennifer Huber. Permission to republish Images of America – Port Charlotte, Florida in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.