Memory Lane Takes Twists and Turns

Jeff Lytle

Ask Ray Carroll about local history and get ready for a measured, thoughtful answer. Not only is his family entrenched in real estate appraisals and civic good deeds, but he is a student of the past and how it connects with today and tomorrow.

“The future history we make is always the most important,” he observes, “but it should be lived wisely in the context of past history.”

With that said, the approach of a new year is a prime time to take stock.

Ray Carroll

Carroll’s chronicle of milestones takes a diverse, development driven approach – apt for a member of the Naples Area Board of Realtors hall of fame who founded Carroll & Carroll Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants with his late father, Ernie, in 1984. (His son Rob and sister Cindy are in the appraisal field as well.)

For his first chapter, Carroll, a graduate of Florida Atlantic University, goes back to the late 19th century, when his family came to the Arcadia area around the time when visionary city pioneers built the Naples Pier and the Old Naples Hotel.

“From the beginning, Naples was about climate, recreation and real estate development,” says Carroll. “Thank the developers for a public beach — and public beach access at every city avenue.”

Then came the government basics, in 1923 — the formation and naming of Collier County in return for Barron G. Collier overcoming tall odds to finish the Tamiami Trail, and the chartering of the City of Naples.

Carroll notes that more than naming rights were involved. “Thanks to visionary staff leadership, and wealthy residents with know-how, early in its history Naples had street landscaping and a good water/sewer system,” he says.

Beating the Trail by a few years, railroads come to (and from) town, with depots near Naples Airport (coming in 1941) and the Four Corners downtown.

Anticipating more growth like plans for Port Royal, Aqualane Shores and Royal Harbor, the year 1956 was huge for health care, Carroll says, as Naples Community Hospital opened with 50 beds– “a good facility, founded ahead of its time, due to the generosity of wealthy residents.”

The year 1960 brought bad news, with Hurricane Donna, but good news followed with the economic boost from property insurance payouts. And, only a few years later, even greater economic gain was on the horizon with the platting of Golden Gate and Marco Island.

Before the decade would end, development brought the opening of the now-S.S. Jolley Bridge. “Naples and Marco now seem much closer,” Carroll observes.

The whole world got closer in 1983 with the opening of Southwest Florida Regional Airport, leading to the opening of Naples’ first Ritz-Carlton Hotel only two years later and I-75’s debut shortly after that. “Now there were good interstate road connections to the Midwest and the Northeast,” Carroll instructs.

1988 saw the launch of civic infrastructure such as Leadership Collier. The Southwest Florida Land Preservation Trust facilitated complicated projects with many landowners such as the Gordon River Greenway decades later.

“We became civilized,” he continues,” in 1989 – when the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts opened.

Old Naples Zoo

Leap to 2004, when Carroll says the landmark Naples Zoo, earlier known as Caribbean Gardens and Jungle Larry’s African Safari, became a public treasure as voters approved a preservation push.

The zoo hits close to home for Carroll, who once served on its board, and with the Naples Airport, which he also helped guide, a stone’s throw across the Gordon River.

The year also hosted Hurricane Charley, with Wilma to follow in 2005 – and Irma and Ian in 2017 and 2022 respectively.

One of the final talking points on Carroll’s memory lane takes several years to play out – COVID 19 “and growing political divisiveness.” He adds this historic/economic perspective: “External conditions enhanced the attractiveness of SW Florida, resulting in population surge, increasing real estate values and rising construction costs.”

My key milestones in local history are fundamental, such as the completion of train tracks as well as the Tamiami Trail and Interstate 75 by land, and our local airports. Close behind on my list are institutions that have broadened our horizons for education and culture, such as Florida Gulf Coast University and Florida SouthWestern State College. Senior citizen residential centers such as Bentley Village and Moorings Park have become economicengines. And staples such as mosquito control and air conditioning laid the groundwork for it all.

So there you have it on this New Year’s season, blending looks back and ahead by me –for whom history is a hobby–and Ray Carroll– for whom history is a way of life.

Enjoy 2026 as a Happy New Year.

Jeff Lytle covered and commented on the Naples area from 1979 to 2014, when he retired as editorial page editor and TV host at the Naples Daily News. Contact him at jlytle1951@gmail.com.