PENDING DISASTER -- This 1904 photo of Punta Gorda’s Marion Avenue – the town’s main business area – looks west from King Street (now Tamiami Trail) before the First Great Fire of 1905 burned most of the buildings shown. Note tracks, foreground, of the Florida Southern Railway that ran down the middle of King St. Hitched horses and buggies, left. The fence, right, shielded rear of the Hotel Punta Gorda and barred trespassers.