Tuesday, July 18 was the beginning of the end for two pieces of Cape Haze Peninsula’s history. The former home of Mike Schworm was dismantled and taken down to the ground, while Eunice Albritton’s little house that stood nearby waited forlornly for its turn under the proverbial wrecking ball.

Both homes were in grave disrepair even before Hurricane Ian, but afterward they were damaged even more. They had stood there since the 1940s, when Walter Gault brought his fishing operation from the village of Gasparilla at the north end of the island over the waters of Gasparilla Sound to the southern tip of the Cape Haze Peninsula, in Placida. He purchased the Gasparilla fishery property in the 1930s, but a decade later the railroad sold the land.

The July meeting of the Boca Grande Historic Preservation Board went rather expeditiously, even though the one official item on the agenda was a huge project at 1000 10th Street. It was the discussion at the very end of the meeting regarding future items to be addressed by the board that were the most important.

Lee County Planner Peter Blackwell was reading off the scant list of items that will come before the board in August and, quite possibly, September. When he mentioned the old bakery building that the tower fell into, Board Member Bill Caldwell was quick to ask what the status of that project was. Blackwell said their permission to demo had not been granted by the county yet, as they were still waiting on the paperwork from the petitioner.