May 18, 1997

Punta Gorda's Historic Depot Was Babcock's Last Gift

The last of Fred Babcock's many philanthropies -- that we know about, he shunned the limelight -- is the old Atlantic Coast Line railroad depot at Punta Gorda.

He gave the structure, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, to Old Punta Gorda, Inc., last year for restoration and use as a community meeting hall.

Mr. Fred died in his sleep at his beloved lodge in the heart of Telegraph-Cypress Swamp last week at age 83. He had been in failing health.

Babcock ranch folks bought the depot several years ago with intention of turning it into an upscale restaurant. They put on a new, tile roof at great expense.

Then a spate of new restaurants nearby changed the market mix sufficiently to make the venture less attractive. By permission, the Audubon Society stored donated furniture and other articles there for periodic auctions.

Gulf-Seminole Railroad of Fort Myers -- successor to two other railroad companies that first built tracks to Punta Gorda -- repaved the passenger boarding walk four years ago.

During the winter season, Seminole's excursion train stops to pick up customers for a leisurely trip back through time to old depots at Fort Ogden and Arcadia.

Following the Civil War -- or the War For Southern Independence, as it was known hereabouts -- three railroads pushed into Florida to take advantage of generous land grants.

The state offered 10,000 acres along the right-of-way for every mile of track laid. The incentive was real estate. Passengers and freight were secondary.

Coming down the center of the peninsula was the narrow gauge Florida Southern Railway. Henry B. Plant headed a consortium of investors pushing down the west coast. Henry M. Flagler developed the east coast.

When Florida Southern approached Bartow in 1883 -- heading for Charlotte Harbor Town -- Plant became worried that the railroad might throw a spur west to Tampa where he was planning a major development. Consequently he bought a majority interest in Florida Southern in order to freeze out competition.

Col. Isaac Trabue, of Louisville, Ky., at this time bought 30 acres, sight unseen, from James M. Lanier on the bay opposite Charlotte Harbor Town. He visited his purchase in 1885 and discovered what eager Yankees often did. Much of his land was underwater during the rain season or at high tide.

To recoup his investment, Trabue platted his parcel into town lots and rushed to Florida Southern headquarters at Boston, Mass. He offered half his land if the railroad would come down the east side of Peace River and build its terminal at "Trabue."

Florida Southern directors agreed, and the tracks reached Trabue in July 1886. However, the rails didn't run directly into Col. Trabue's tract but continued on west another mile to Punta Gorda (Fat Point) -- a centuries old landmark for Cuban fishermen.

The railroad constructed a "long dock" and depot near today's Punta Gorda Isles Yacht Club. A 14-foot deep channel enabled Morgan Line steamships to tie up and take on transfer passengers for Havana, Cuba.

A diamond-shaped rail "wye" was constructed at the north edge of Trabue's would-be town and a spur extended down the middle of King Street (now Tamiami Trail, north.) Trains backed around the wye to head north for the return trip.

The first train carried marl fill, lumber and the vanguard of 200 workmen who built a 150-room hotel in six months.

A small, frame depot was built inside the turning wye -- now an empty lot on Tamiami Trail north of Scotty's building supply store. Passengers were picked up and returned by carriage.

Business tycoons with private Pullman cars were routed down the King Street spur and allowed to park alongside Hotel Punta Gorda.

By 1897, the citizens of Trabue had changed the town's name to Punta Gorda to reflect its prime attraction -- the hotel. The business district had centered around the hotel.

At this time, Plant and Col. Trabue disagreed over a concession of some sort. Plant took up the rails to the long dock and Trabue's ice factory. Then he built a shorter dock in shallow water at the foot of King Street where gondolas of coal could be pushed to steam driven yachts owned by hotel guests.

He also built a large, frame depot on the east side of King Street opposite the hotel to accommodate guests. Without rail connection, Morgan Line changed to Tampa dockage -- probably the real reason Plant provoked an excuse to squash Punta Gorda.

Plant died in 1899, and his vast rail system was bought in 1902 by the Atlantic Coast Line.

The little 1886 depot sat empty until 1904 when the ACL extended its tracks to Fort Myers. Increased railroad traffic brought a brief resurrection of the little frontier depot for a new purpose.

Reported the Punta Gorda Herald in April: "The old Coast Line depot at the wye has been fitted up as a packing house."

Part-time workers now filled boxes with oranges and winter vegetables where rich and famous visitors originally came to enjoy unparalleled fishing, hunting and boating.

During the First World War, young soldiers kissed their sweethearts good-bye at the King Street depot one last time before marching off to "make the world safe for democracy."

The downtown depot proved to be more of a nuisance than a convenience. Fishing companies set up packing houses on the railroad dock where boxcars banged back and forth at all hours. The smell of fish dampened the appetites of hotel guests. Winter visitors stopped coming.

Town residents also disliked the trains that took up one of its main business streets. Sparks from the wood and coal burning locomotives set roofs afire. New-fangled "horseless carriages" generally lost encounters with trains backing down to the depot.

Barron Collier, a wealthy advertising executive, offered to renovate the old hotel if the town would remove the depot and dock. The town readily obliged. The municipal dock was relocated to Maud St., now Fishermen's Village.

Atlantic Coast Line was glad to return to the railroad wye -- site of the first depot -- where packing houses, lumber yards and oil tanks provided valuable freight business.

The Herald in December 1928 headlined plans by ACL for a new depot:

COAST LINE FULFILLS PROMISE TO COOPERATE IN CITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM.

"Contracts were let by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad company this week for construction of a new passenger and freight depot. The work was awarded to the R.W. Burrows Construction Company of Bartow.

"The building is to be of modern brick and concrete construction unusually attractive in design. It will be approximately 140 feet in length and 40 feet in width -- with one end of the structure devoted to freight and the other to passenger service.

"It will be located on the main line of the railroad with one end of the passenger walk reaching nearly to Taylor street, and extending southwest from the street near the tracks to William Street.

"The new depot will be one-half mile from the business center of the city. However, any inconvenience that may be incurred because of this walk or haul is considered by the fact that the railroad will remove the tracks from King Street and open up this important business area more convenient to traffic.

"The new bridge to enter this city on this street -- now occupied by railroad trains freight hauls to the fish dock -- will go across the western section of the city to the Maud Street pier where new fish houses are nearing completion."

The new depot's "unusually attractive design" was neo-Spanish, then popular in Florida, Texas and California which have strong roots in early Spanish occupation.

Atlantic Coast Line built several of its Florida Land Boom era depots from the same blueprint. Only those at Punta Gorda and Bradenton still exist.

The twin depots have two waiting rooms -- a large one for "whites" and a small one for "colored." Very few examples of this segregation arrangement remain to testify about historic civil rights problems.

Because of the sturdy construction with masonry materials, the two ACL depots are in remarkably good condition.

Lesser depots were built by railroad companies in Charlotte County. The first one was at Cleveland in 1885 where the Florida Southern halted for several months while the last leg of track was being extended to Punta Gorda.

During the era when pineapples were cultivated extensively at Solana, a small depot was maintained there primarily for shipping the fruit. It was popularly called "Pineapple Junction."

An active depot for shipment of turpentine, lumber and winter vegetables was Acline south of Punta Gorda. The name -- pronounced Ak-line -- was a contraction of the first two initials of Atlantic Coast Line. Today the name survives as a road where the depot once stood on highway U.S. 41

The Charlotte Harbor & Northern Railroad, built in 1910 from Mulberry to Gasparilla Island, mostly carried phosphate ore to deep-water ships waiting at South Boca Grande. The CH&N built fine depots at Murdock, El Jobean and Boca Grande. Smaller ones were at McCall and Placida.

The Boca Grande depot, in the Lee County portion of Gasparilla Island, is another beautiful example of land-boom neo-Spanish architecture. Stunningly restored, the two-story depot today is home to smart shops and professional offices --- as is the old ACL depot at Arcadia in DeSoto County.

The ACL depot at Fort Myers has been converted to a busy historical museum.

With renovation of the old Hotel Punta Gorda -- renamed Hotel Charlotte Harbor by Collier -- prominent visitors swarmed through the beautiful Taylor Street depot for a few years.

Then came collapse of the Great Florida Land Boom, and the slide into the Great Depression. Once again, young men kissed their sweethearts at the train station and went off to World War II. Sadly, fewer came back on the train than started off.

The ACL depot at Punta Gorda closed its doors to passengers in 1971 and to freight a few years later. Diesel locomotives could not compete with airlines, Interstate highways, 18-wheel trucks and go-anywhere automobiles.

Nevertheless, the outstanding demonstrations of new life for old depots in Lee and DeSoto counties surely prove there is a future also for Charlotte County's last one.

cutline 1 -- portrait, large, do not crop out hands

Photo courtesy of Babcock Lumber Co.

Fred Babcock's last, formal photograph.

cutline 2 - depot

Photo courtesy of the Charlotte Harbor Area Historical Society

The old Atlantic Coast Line depot shortly after construction. It is in excellent condition today, but Old Punta Gorda, Inc., needs substantial funds for restoration and conversion to a community meeting hall.

By Lindsey Wilger Williams, retired newspaper publisher and syndicated columnist