THE NAPLES PIER: A LOCAL LANDMARK OF CULTURE AND HISTORY
By Kathleen Falk
August 24, 2011
For use by NaplesNetNews.com with author’s permission granted.
The original Naples Municipal Pier, a 600-foot wharf that extended into the Floridian sea to a depth of 18 feet, was constructed in 1888 by Walter Haldeman. Construction workers camped in tents nearby Haldeman’s pier paradise, while timber and other goods were boated in, unloaded into the sea water, towed to the shore, dragged from the beach by horses, and left to dry for use in the construction of the pier’s structure.
Dance festivities occurred on the end of the Naples pier in the early 1900s, and Marco Islanders boated to the Saturday night social gatherings at Haldeman’s pier. In addition to serving as a working pier, the pier became a popular location for sizable fish-catches and evening sunset-gazing on the Gulf.
A 1906 storm damaged the pier, and then a 1910 hurricane destroyed the construction almost entirely. After its reconstruction, the pier and the Post Office that had been added at its northeast edge were badly affected by a 1922 fire. By 1926, the Naples pier, damaged, served as a working pier no longer, but instead as a hub for recreation and leisure.
When fishing proved productive, retail outlets closed for business while patrons fished at the Naples pier. During this early era, large fish, sometimes weighing approximately 550 pounds, were not unusual inhabitants of the Floridian sea by which pier-goers thrived.
After Hurricane Donna ruined the pier in September 1960, the Norris Family donated funds in the amount of $104,000 to reconstruct the Naples pier in greenheart wood from South America. The pier has remained as we know it now: a cherished fishing and sunset-viewing site for tourists and locals alike.
