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Florida Cracker House meets the XXI century

By LLoyd Nichols

Real Estate Agent with Premier Florida Realty of SWFL

November 18, 2007 04:37 PM

As I was cruising along Estero island or Fort Myers Beach I saw a garage sell sign and it took me to a 2 hectares property which covers one whole block and ends up with its south side on a gulf access canal. It is indeed a Florida cracker house.These days we migth call them Beach cottage or Beach Bangalow. It has all the details of the pre-air conditioning architecture with the many windows, the board and batten structure, the slopped front roof which covers the front porch and of course the chimney. The home dates from the 1930's and needs some work to say the least. Ii took you back to when Fort Myers Beach had a wooden bridge and the Florida Homesteaders lived the simple life of fishing and had to go to Fort Myers for better jobs and the wives had only one or 2 summer dresses. Of course they were no condos then. The roads were made of dirt and people would also grow their own vegetables on their properties. Not far from Fort Myers Beach along our Historic District they were building some grandiose Hispanic homes along the Caloosahatchee River.

The early days of the Homesteaders dates from 1891 when a certain Mr Guilbert acquired the first Homesteader rights in 1898 for a 172 acre property! Much has changed on the island of course except for this cracker home.

One can see the typical dormer from the back of the home, the round pilings which were just banged down in the ground and had at times tar to protect it from the rain and termites, the tin roof and in this case it seems an added enclosed lanai on the right hand. I talked to the 30 some nephew of the owner. He referred to himself as a country boy and told me that the last time he painted the house was ten years ago, but he didn't seem to be worried. he told me his family and uncle who owns that home, were one of the first to dredge the canals of Fort Myers Beach and he mentioned also a few landmarks his family build then in the 50's and 60's. I couldn't really tell the age of the uncle with the pony tail and the wiry figure.Ageless and seemingly very agile and fast on his feet. the only sign of something modern was a quite new PT Cruiser.

The home has a few window air conditioning units and no heat. " The fire place is all we need" he said.

The nephew worked for some 7 years or so for the town and lately he has been installing some hurricane shutters all over the place and mostly on high buildings. The uncle is retired and enjoys some fishing off the canal of his property among other activities and goes boating on a sort of alluminium power boat. They had a tremedous amount of stuff to sell.Mostly junk but my wife found a Christian Dior Kimono which was kind of out of place. "that's what some room mate left behind" said the nephew. It was bit as if being in the Twilight Zone.

the view from their dock.

under a look at a part of the 2 hectares. I don't think they landscaped to often but the place had a certain Old Florida Charm. A bit rough but it was telling a story. The land alone is probably worth over a million dollars.I don't think the uncle plans on selling it any time soon.It's his homestead.