Downtown Fort Myers holds the largest concentration of historic buildings still standing in Southwest Florida. It has been an Army fort, a cattle port, a winter retreat for one of America's most famous inventors, a place people stopped going after dark, and then, slowly, a downtown again. This page tells that story and points you at the buildings where you can still see it.
1. A Fort With No Town
The United States Army built Fort Myers in 1850 on the burned ruins of an earlier post, Fort Harvie, on the south bank of the Caloosahatchee River. It was named for Brevet Colonel Abraham Charles Myers, quartermaster for the Army's Department of Florida.
The fort operated through the Second and Third Seminole Wars and was abandoned in 1858 at the end of the third. It came back to life briefly during the Civil War: on February 20, 1865, Union and Confederate forces met here in the Battle of Fort Myers, the southernmost land battle of the war. It settled nothing. Two months later the war was over.
Worth remembering
Nearly everything downtown sits on ground the Army graded first. The street grid still bends to the river the way the fort did.
2. Cattle Town on the Caloosahatchee
On February 21, 1866, Captain Manuel A. Gonzalez arrived at the abandoned fort and established the first trading post. That date is generally taken as the founding of the community.
For the rest of the century Fort Myers was a cattle town with dirt streets. Herds were driven west to Punta Rassa, near present-day Sanibel, and loaded onto ships bound for Cuba. Spanish gold came back the other way. The town incorporated on August 12, 1885 with 349 residents, which was enough to make it the second largest town on Florida's Gulf Coast south of Cedar Key.
3. Mr. Edison Winters Here
Also in 1885, Thomas Edison came down the coast, liked what he saw, and bought thirteen acres on the river. By 1886 he had built Seminole Lodge, part winter home and part laboratory. He returned for more than fifty winters and spent much of that time on botanical research, hunting for a domestic source of rubber.
Edison imported royal palms and planted them along Riverside Avenue, now McGregor Boulevard. The city has called itself the City of Palms ever since.
Two dates opened the town up to the rest of the country. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad reached Fort Myers on May 10, 1904. The Edison Bridge across the Caloosahatchee opened on February 11, 1931, and the north side of the river began to fill in.
Still going
The Edison Festival of Light began in 1938 as the Edison Pageant of Light: three days of coronation ball, parade, band concert and memorial service. It has run annually ever since, and the night parade still comes down the middle of downtown.
4. What Is Still Standing
A walking tour, roughly west to east. Every building below is still there unless noted.
| Built | Building | The Story |
|---|---|---|
| 1901 | Murphy‑Burroughs House 2505 First Street |
Georgian Revival house built by cattle rancher John T. Murphy. Bought in 1919 by Nelson Burroughs, whose daughters Mona and Jettie lived in it from 1922. Listed on the National Register August 1, 1984. Now run by the Uncommon Friends Foundation for tours and events. |
| 1914 | First National Bank Building | One of the anchors of the commercial district and a contributing building on the National Register. |
| 1915 | Old Lee County Courthouse | Designed by Tampa architect Francis J. Kennard. Added to the National Register in 1989. |
| 1915 | Arcade Theatre 2267 First Street |
Opened as a vaudeville house, then reopened as a 1,000‑seat movie theatre on February 5, 1917 under owner Harvie Heitman. Rebuilt by architect Roy A. Benjamin and reopened December 20, 1938. Closed as a movie house February 22, 1977, restored in 1991 (a benefit performance by Mikhail Baryshnikov helped pay for it), and reopened November 1, 1991 with 393 seats. Home of Florida Repertory Theatre. |
| 1920s | Patio de Leon | Originally Tonnelier Court, after its builder Peter Tonnelier, with live baby alligators in the fountain. George R. Sims bought it in 1924, renamed it Patio de Leon and worked a lion motif through the courtyard. Its Moorish Revival Omar Theatre is gone; the courtyard is still a gathering place. |
| 1933 | Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center 2301 First Street |
Built as the U.S. Post Office and federal building, Neoclassical Revival, architect Nat Gaillard Walker. Sat empty for years, then reopened as a community art center on September 10, 2009. |
| 1941 | Edison Theatre | A single‑screen house run by a Paramount subsidiary. The building survives downtown in office use. |
5. The Historic District Itself
The Fort Myers Downtown Commercial District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 26, 1990. It contains 69 historic buildings and is bounded by Bay and Lee Streets, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Monroe Street.
That listing matters more than it sounds. It arrived at the end of decades in which downtown had been steadily emptied out by malls and by the growth of the suburbs, and it is a large part of the reason the block faces you walk past today were repaired instead of replaced.
6. The Comeback
Around 2009 the city finished a roughly $52 million utility and streetscape project through downtown. The wires went underground, First Street got brick paving and gaslights, and the district picked up the name it goes by now: the River District.
- March 11, 2009 — Hotel Indigo opens with 67 rooms, the first new‑construction hotel inside the historic district in twenty years.
- September 10, 2009 — the old post office reopens as the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center.
- January 2014 — the Fort Myers Regional Library is completed at the east end of First Street.
Restaurants and bars filled in behind all of that. The short version, if you are standing on First Street wondering why an old downtown in Southwest Florida still looks like an old downtown: it was built well, it was left alone long enough to survive being unfashionable, and then it was repaired.
7. Quick Timeline
- 1850
- Fort Myers built on the ruins of Fort Harvie, named for Col. Abraham C. Myers.
- 1858
- Fort abandoned at the end of the Third Seminole War.
- Feb 20, 1865
- Battle of Fort Myers, the southernmost land battle of the Civil War.
- Feb 21, 1866
- Manuel A. Gonzalez opens the first trading post. The town begins.
- 1885
- Incorporated August 12 with 349 residents. Thomas Edison buys thirteen acres on the river.
- 1886
- Seminole Lodge completed.
- May 10, 1904
- The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad arrives.
- 1915
- Arcade Theatre and the Lee County Courthouse both go up.
- Feb 11, 1931
- The Edison Bridge opens across the Caloosahatchee.
- 1933
- The federal building and post office is completed on First Street.
- 1938
- First Edison Pageant of Light.
- Jan 26, 1990
- The Downtown Commercial District joins the National Register.
- Nov 1, 1991
- The restored Arcade Theatre reopens as a performing arts venue.
- 2009
- Streetscape project completed. The River District as we know it.
8. Sources
- Wikipedia, Fort Myers, Florida and Fort Myers Downtown Commercial District and Murphy-Burroughs House
- Cinema Treasures, Arcade Theatre
- My River District, Our History
- Modern Cities, The River District Comes Alive
- PocketSights, Patio de Leon
- Edison Festival of Light, About