Where is Naples Florida on a Map?

We receive phone calls and emails all the time from folks around the world who have heard such incredible things about Naples Florida from their families and friends and others they look up to, and believe it or not, one of the most frequent questions I initially receive is quite simply

Where is Naples Florida on a map

The Naples Town Improvement Company was founded in the autumn of 1886 to establish a town named Naples, reminiscent of the Italian peninsula, and develop it as a winter retreat. The company purchased 3,712 acres between the Gulf of Mexico and what is now known as Naples Bay for $11,136, or $3 an acre.

Magazine and newspaper stories stories talking about the incredible fishing and miild climate compared it to the sunny peninsula in Italy named Naples, in fact Naples Bay in Florida was often described s surpassing the4 bay in Naples Italy.

So, it was no coincidence that Naples Florida was named after Naples Italy as there are many similarities between the two places. Interesting enough, when you look at a map, Florida reminds me of Italy and, from that respect, Naples Florida is located in a nearly identical spot on Florida compared to Naples location on Italy.

HISTORY OF NAPLES FLORIDA

In the late 1800s, during U.S. surveys of Southwest Florida, a senator from Louisville, General John S. Williams, was spellbound by descriptions of the area and planned to visit Southwest Florida, buy land and develop a city.

He recruited Walter Haldeman, the owner of the Louisville Courier Journal newspaper, for the expedition. In 1885, the men chartered a boat and sailed down the coast looking for a piece of mainland where they could establish their city. As they sailed by the location of present-day Naples, they noticed the miles of beaches, and when they discovered a bay just behind the beach, they thought they had found paradise.

In the next few years, both Williams and Haldeman built homes on the beach, hired a Fort Myers firm to build a pier and had survey teams plan their city. At the center of their city was a 16-room hotel situated two blocks inland from the pier at the narrowest piece of land between the beach and the bay. The hotel opened in 1889 and Rose Cleveland, the sister of President Cleveland, was the first guest.

By 1889, the Naples Town Improvement Company was running short of funds and borrowing from Walter Haldeman. He had so far invested $35,000 into the venture, and other investors were tired of losing money. On January 10, 1890, the Naples Town Improvement Company was sold at public auction on the steps of the Naples Hotel. The only bidder was Walter Haldeman, and for $50,000 he bought the company in its entirety ­including 8,600 acres of land, the hotel, the pier, the steamship Fearless that transported guests to and from Naples and General Williams' house. Mr. Haldeman continued to promote Naples, but more and more over the years he ran the hotel and the town as a loving hobby.

Ed Crayton, a successful land developer from St. Petersburg, came to town in the early 1900s. There he met Walter Haldeman's son’s secretary and they were shortly married. At the same time, Mr. Crayton bought all of Haldeman's property except for his home. Thus, a new chapter in Naples history began. Mr. Crayton developed Naples until his death in 1938, at which time the estate passed to his wife, Mrs. Lindsey Crayton until the 1950s. Under the Crayton’s supervision, many changes were made during this time including the introduction of electric power in 1926, the rail service in 1927, and the completion of Tamiami Trail in 1928. With high hopes of big development, a market crash in 1929 and then World War II a few years later kept Naples a small but lovely oasis until the mid-1950s.