Libraries

Way back, the Collier County library was located in what is now the upscale Third Street shopping area, backing up to the old Naples Hotel and the pier area. This was pretty much the original 'downtown' part of Naples. It moved to its current location near what was then the junior high school in the mid-Sixties.

the old library

 

The protagonist trio of my 'Sun' novels are just old enough to have been there for the change, and would have visited the library at both locations. For Joey and Ronnie, it would have been a favored after-school location (and Kris would have gone along with it as a meet-up spot, at least sometimes). As I remember the old library, it was cramped and a bit chaotic, and really could not fill the needs of a growing Naples.

The new building was a considerable improvement, at least in function. Very modern in its architecture, a big change from the old one. Eventually, it was also expanded and a shopping center-like facade added. Not an improvement in my opinion!

The Old Hotel

 

the old Naples Hotel

 
The old Naples Hotel as it was, standing near the pier and what is now the swanky Third Street shopping district in Naples Florida. It had been a landmark since the late Nineteenth Century but was well past its prime when I lived there as a youngster. The place was closed down and demolished decades ago. A new Naples Hotel, looking rather like the original, is now rising in much the same spot. I doubt it will attract quite the same sort of clientele as the old one.

The Hotel has appeared in my Women in the Sun novels, set in the late Sixties, but only in passing, not as a setting for any of the action. It was an object of nostalgia already in 1968. But I remember walking past it on my way to the pier in the evenings, with guests sitting on their screened porches, the scent of citronella wafting into the dusk. That will never come back, whatever they build.