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The Making of
Cape Coral
From pioneers to paradise— a modern tale of success.
Photos Courtesy of Cape Coral Museum / Historical Society
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Coral’ s existence isn’ t as storied as other major cities, but few places have had so much happen so fast as the creation of the biggest city in Southwest Florida-one that evolved from wilderness to“ Waterfront Wonderland” in the span of six decades.
Well into the 20 th century, the land now covered by neighborhoods and businesses was an isolated backcountry inhabited by cattle, citrus groves and pioneers. As late as the 1920s, the federal government was giving homesteaders 160 acres of free land for settling and improving it. At the start of the 1950s, scattered homesteads and large tracts of investor landholdings shared the region.
Leonard and Jack Rosen, brothers from Baltimore, Md., visited south Florida in 1957 in search of new business prospects. When they saw the vacant land in Cape Coral, they envisioned it as a new city, and bought 103 square miles at Redfish Point.
To make their dream a reality, the Rosens formed the Gulf American Land Corp., and by 1959 work was underway, clearing land and dredging miles of canals to fulfill their dream of creating the world’ s
capecoralchamber. com 46 largest waterfront community.
At the time, there was only one road in Cape Coral— Harney Point Road— and it was later renamed Del Prado Boulevard. The Rosens laid down two miles of Cape Coral Parkway starting at the Caloosahatchee River, marking the northern boundary of early development.
The first eight houses were built as models in 1958 along Riverside and Flamingo drives.( The earliest roads have names; later roads were given numerical designations.) Kenny Schwartz is credited with being the new city’ s first resident