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Cape Coral's 40th Anniversary

Community theater, Yacht Club key elements

Recreational facilities throughout Cape Coral have a rich history of their own.Even though the city wasn't incorporated until 1970, many of the facilities used today already existed and were just as popular as they are today. The Cultural Park Theatre, the longest running community theater in Southwest Florida, was founded in 1962 by 20 local residents."Back then they used to perform in the schools and various store fronts across town," said Michael Moran, theater creative director.In the '60s, the Cape Coral Community Players were a collection of people without a home theater. Over the ...

Handshake in 1957 helps bring power to Cape Coral

In 1957, a handshake symbolized a promise between LCEC manager Homer T. Welch Jr. and Gulf Guaranty Land and Title Company President Leonard Rosen to bring electricity to Cape Coral. Welch agreed to return Rosen's deposit for the cost to run electricity to the area after homes were built.In June, 1958 eight miles of power lines extended down Del Prado Boulevard to serve 24 model homes and Rosen got his money back.Kenneth Schwartz, a Gulf American vice president, was the first to have electricity in his new home and Cape Coral was off to a powerful new beginning. Schwartz's home no longer ...

Community takes control of its own destiny

As Cape Coral made the transition from a Rosen brothers vision to a full fledged city, the earliest of the municipal pioneers were faced with the challenge of delivering upon the services that a city - newly formed or otherwise - are required to offer.Many Cape residents in the late 1960s felt ...

Long-time resident has enjoyed watching Cape develop

Clint Kelly, who turned 95 years old Wednesday, July 28, moved to Cape Coral in 1970, after staying in Miami for basic training for the U.S. military for nine months, along with visiting Lee County with his wife Evelyn, known as "Susie," for many years.Drafted at the age 28, Kelly stay in ...

Civic Association pushed for incorporation

On March 1, 1962, the Cape Coral Civic Association was formed. On April 2, 1962, when Cape Coral had the remarkable population of 1,605 people, the Cape Coral Civic Association, with 228 members, elected its first board of directors. The Cape Coral Civic Association is the oldest civic ...

Cape has always been a special place for Elmer Tabor and his family

One family helped shape Cape Coral into what it is today by contributing one of the first businesses to the city in the early 1960s.Elmer Tabor moved to Cape Coral in 1960 from West Virginia with his family. He said after his grandfather retired to the area in 1957, his family began to spend more time in Fort Myers during the summer.When the development of Cape Coral began in 1958, Tabor's grandfather asked his father to pack up the kids and open a grocery store in Cape Coral, due to his knowledge of having a business in West Virginia for many years. In 1960, Elmer's father opened a ...