In 1926, Everglades (later known as Everglades City) was in its heyday. Barron Collier, the visionary millionaire entrepreneur who founded the modern version of the town, was just hitting his stride. The Tamiami Trail, a highway across the Everglades connecting Florida’s coasts and financed by Collier was nearing completion. Meanwhile, the coastal community opened its first high school, the Everglades Inn hotel was expanding, and both an iconic county courthouse and a third, much grander, home for Mr. Collier’s Bank of Everglades were under construction.
Join us as Museum Manager Thomas Lockyear turns the calendar back a full century to explore the once booming town that Collier built and how its present-day incarnation—smaller, quieter, and only occasionally bustling—still reflects those intrinsically American values that form the fabric of our nation.
This talk will lay the groundwork for our next temporary exhibit, which will celebrate our country’s 250th anniversary and open on the 4th of July.
